Power of Eclipse
by NHunter
Summary: An ancient curse is reborn, powered by anger and sated by blood, its might dimming Magic itself. And now one unlucky child wields it. This is the story of Harry Potter and his cursed power, the power of Eclipse. ••• Warning: this is NOT a nice story. It's rated M for violence, and for a reason. ••• Collaboration project with greysongarr
1. The Beginning

Hello, everyone, and welcome the " **Power of Eclipse** " story.

This is an old idea of mine, originally inspired by Lupine Horror's " **Reinforced Magic** ". It went through several iterations, before finally blossoming into a full story, which is being written in a collaboration between greysongarr and yours truly. This is a crossover with " ** _Magical Record Lyrical Nanoha: Force_** " and, therefore, it **WILL NOT** be a nice story. Please be mindful of that. Now, without further ado:

* * *

 **Title** : Power of Eclipse  
 **Authors** : NHunter, greysongarr  
 **Beta** : Remilia - The Scarlet Moon, Skelekitty  
 **Genre** : General, Adventure  
 **Rating** : M = NC-17  
 **Warnings** : AU; Crossover; _extreme violence with gore_ ; other not-nice stuff; not-so-sane authors.

* * *

 **Disclaimer** : " ** _Harry Potter_** " and " _ **Mahou Shoujou Lyrical Nanoha**_ " belong to their respective owners. No profit is being made. The same goes for any other media that might be used as the sources of ideas and inspiration.

"speaking"  
" _telepathy_ "  
「 _Devices speaking_ 」  
' _thinking_ '  
" **spells** "

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 **Power of Eclipse**  
 **Chapter I: The Beginning**

A pretty but otherwise forgettable young woman shifted from one foot to the other nervously as she stood before her boss's office, scared of approaching him right now, even if normally he was a secretary's dream: kind, friendly, patient and understanding. Handsome too. Why was she scared? That was actually pretty simple: she was about to deliver him some really bad news. And that wasn't something anyone could do without feeling at least a little nervous and frightened. Still, keeping her boss informed about the things happening in the world was her job so, taking deep breath to steel her nerves, the secretary knocked on the door.

"S-Sir!" She called, before stepping inside the office. "You have a p-priority message from Faurus's traffic control. I think, you s-should hear this." Her boss – a tall and athletic man in his late twenties with dark hair and piercing steely-gray eyes – let out a deep sigh, already guessing what kind of news he was about to hear.

"Go on." He commanded as he leaned forwards over his large mahogany table.

"They've lost all contact w-with _MSV Athabasca_ around fifteen minutes ago. The cause of this is unknown right now, b-but the evidence they have points towards a malfunction in the r-reactor core, which caused the ship to fall into the Imaginary Space as it was entering the Dimension Sea." The secretary said. Then, after pausing for a moment to pull together, she continued: "The Prototype and the Book were aboard that ship and..."

"And you believe them to be lost forever." Her boss finished for her. This was followed a long and uneasy silence. "This is indeed very unfortunate." He said finally. "And while the loss of the Book is of no consequence to our plans, losing Zero sets us back several months, if not a full year..." Standing up from his armchair, he walked up to a floor-to-ceiling window that served as the side wall of his office. "That said,..." He continued. "We still possess both the Seed of Origin and Zero's blueprints. It can be rebuilt." He said, his voice now full of determination. "Contact the fifth laboratory here on Liberta ASAP. Tell them to drop whatever projects they are working on right now and begin building Zero's replacement."

"Y-Yes, sir!" His secretary replied, already forwarding the orders to the laboratory through her device.

"Also." He continued. "Have the staff from the Faurus's laboratory, as well as the entire maintenance crew of _Athabasca_ rounded up. If the ship's disappearance was the result of a deliberate sabotage and not an accident, I want the culprits to be dealt with. _Permanently_."

"O-Of course." The young woman replied. "Anything else, sir?" She asked then.

"Keep me posted on the progress of the official investigation." Her boss said. When she nodded, he added. "And, please, leave me alone for now. I have... things to contemplate." Nodding respectfully, the secretary backed out of the office. Once the door behind her sealed shut, the man let out an angry roar as he punched the nearest concrete wall hard. While he hasn't lied and the artifacts lost today weren't irreplaceable, their loss still was a major blow for his long-term plans and recovering from it would require great amounts of resources, something that his corporation could barely spare at the moment…

Letting out a deep sigh, he returned to his table and, retaking his seat, began sifting through various documents stored on his computer: if he wanted to minimize his losses from the today's disaster he needed to act fast.

 **~/ *** \~**

"Morning, guys!" Gordon, one of Dudley's friends said loudly as he joined the rest of the friends in the classroom. "Wanna see something totally cool?" He asked then while raising his bag a little to indicate that the 'totally cool' thing he was talking about was in there. Once the gang assembled around his desk, he opened his bag. And, whatever was in there had the other four boys staring at it in awe.

"Is it, you know, real?" Piers Polkiss asked, causing Gordon to make a face as if he had been deeply insulted by this question.

"My father works in private security." He said dangerously. " _Of course_ it's real." Making a small pause to calm down, he continued, now glaring towards a scrawny kid with messy black hair that was seated several desks away from them. "I wonder, how well it will work on the freak here?"

"Why don't we find out?" Dudley offered with a rather unpleasant grin threatening to split his ...large face into two. "We can ambush him after the classes and test you toy out." The rest of the gang quickly agreed with their boss's plan.

Meanwhile, the aforementioned freak – his name actually was Harry Potter – felt a cold shiver run up his spine. And it certainly wasn't because a stray gust of wind found its way under the rag he was calling his shirt. No, it was his sixth sense tingling. And, if his intuition was right, then his cousin and his little band of bullies were planning some new 'trick' they would like to subject him to. He needed to be extra careful today.

* * *

As the end of the classes that day approached, Harry's uneasiness only grew: not only Dudley and his friends haven't tried any new ways to torment him yet, but they actually seemed to lay off him with their usual insults and mischief as well. They were certainly planning something grand, and the young Potter most definitely didn't want to experience whatever new way way of agonizing him those five had come up with firsthand.

Thus, the green-eyed boy bolted out of the classroom as soon as the bell from the last lesson for the day rang. The band of five dashing right after him only made Harry even more determined to get as far away from them as he could. And while he could run pretty fast – faster than his chasers, actually – he didn't have as much stamina as the more 'sporty' members of his cousin's gang did. And their knowledge of his preferred escape routes also didn't help the bespectacled boy any…

Still, despite the proverbial cards being stacked against him, the young Potter managed to keep his lead for almost five blocks as he ran towards the edge of Little Whinging in hopes of losing his pursuers in the gardens there. Hell, he actually almost made it to his chosen destination!.. Alas, a small rock on the ground that he tripped over put a quick end on his escape plans: before he could get up and start running again, Malcolm and Dennis caught up with him and grabbed him by his arms and legs.

"You're not running away from us today, freak." Malcolm said with an evil smile as he tightened his iron grasp, causing Harry to let out a cry of pain.

"Nice work there, guys." Dudley, out of breath from a long scuttle, congratulated as he and the rest of the gang caught up. "Now, why don't we... get somewhere... we won't be disturbed... and test your new toy out, Gordon." Nodding in agreement with their boss, the boys carried their 'prey' to an underground passage connecting the two sides of the road encircling the town.

"Alright, freak." Gordon said as he pulled baton-style electric shock prod from his school bag. "Let's see how you would like this!" And with a bloodthirsty grin he thrust his 'weapon' into Harry's stomach.

"A-Argh-h-h!" The bespectacled boy cried out loudly as angry electricity coursed through his body. Too bad though, Dudley had actually thought this all out and picked up a spot no one would actually hear the young Potter's screams and come to the rescue.

"That looks fun." Big D remarked as he observed the freak of his cousin cry in pain as he futilely tried to squirm away from the prod. "Let me try it." And not even waiting for Gordon to agree, he took possession of the electric baton. Wasting no time, the young Mr. Dursley jabbed it into his cousin's chest, causing him to scream in pain again and again as more electricity was discharged into him... His over-eagerness to hear the freak's agonized cries soon caused Harry's body to reach its limits and shut down. "What? It broke already?" Dudley asked dumbly.

"No way!" Gordon cried out as he quickly took his (father's) electric baton back from the gang's boss. He then tested the prod on his own hand. And got shocked painfully. "What are you talking about, Big D? It works just fine." He managed after a minute of nursing his hurt hand.

"Hey, freak! What's going on?" Dudley demanded as he kicked Harry under the ribs. He got no answer, though. Not even a twitch to indicate that the bespectacled boy was still conscious. "Damn it. We broke the freak." He complained. "Let's go find something else to do, guys."

"What, are you going to just leave the freak here?" Piers asked. "What if someone gets hurt because they tripped over him?" That made Big D pause for a moment.

"You're right. We can't have that happening to the good people." He replied with a shrug. "Throw the freak into a ditch or something." Nodding, Malcolm and Dennis picked the unconscious victim of their latest escapade up and carried him out of tunnel. There, they followed their 'boss's' suggestion and threw the freak-boy into the ditch.

"Hey guys, what are we going to do now?" Piers asked, once the gang was back together.

"How about we hit the mall?" Malcolm suggested. "I heard that the arcade there just got a new and really cool game. We can totally try it out." This seemed to catch the other boys' interest. "Let's go! The last one there buys everyone a round!" He called, before darting towards the mall in question, the rest of the gang racing there with him.

 **~/ *** \~**

Unnoticed by the people of Little Whinging, a lone figure was limping through the overgrown abandoned fields that made up the northern premises of the town. This figure looked like a girl in her mid-teens. She had pale skin, waist-long slightly-wavy light-gray hair and lifeless amber eyes with slightly slitted pupils. Her clothes consisted of just a single white gown that was something a hospital patient or a test subject in a laboratory might wear.

Said gown was all torn up and covered in soot and blood, the girl's own blood, if the heavy injuries and multiple still-bleeding wounds on her body – at least one of which should have been fatal as it went right through the left side of her stomach – were of any indication. Yet, while most certainly weakened and on her last legs, the girl was still pushing forwards, desperately clinging to a book. Admittedly, though, there was more to that book than its gray leather cover with a large silver Gothic cross on it might seem to imply…

As this mysterious girl got closer to the edge of Little Whinging, her amber eyes made out a small body lying in a ditch next to some road. Immediately, she began analyzing this body.

「 _Life signs confirmed._ 」 She whispered under her breath as she recognized that the human boy before her was still alive, despite looking like a body someone tried to dispose of carelessly. 「 _Active Linker Core detected._ 」 And, apparently, this boy was a mage, even if the readings of his magic were unlike anything the girl had seen before. And she had seen quite a few Linker Cores belonging to the users of both Mid-Childan and Belkan magic systems... Still, despite how abnormal the boy's magic was, it was still compatible with hers and, thus, could be used to fuel her recovery. It won't be as fast as it would have been, had his Linker Core being a more traditional one, but she couldn't afford to be picky about her host right now. 「 _Activating self-repair protocols. Commencing direct connection._ 」

Approaching the unconscious boy, the mysterious girl knelt before him and placed her free hand on his shoulder. For a moment nothing happened. Then, both she herself and the book she was holding dissolved into blobs of light which, after a moment, flowed into the boy's body, leaving no traces of the girl's existence in the real world beyond the blood stains on the ground.

Once able to access her current host's Linker Core and siphon his mana to heal her wounds, the girl manifested an avatar in his Internal Space. And she immediately discovered that she wasn't alone here: two more separate entities were contained in there.

One of those entities had the appearance of a very ugly undead toddler with slightly-glowing blood-red eyes and was surrounded by 'evil' aura of blackness. It also was at least partially-sentient, which only made it even more dangerous and repulsive. Opposing that monstrosity was some magical force that looked like a cloud of sparkling bluish mist. This force lacked sentience and was guided by some directions and instructions programmed into it when it was created.

「 _Analyzing foreign magic..._ 」 And while so far neither of those two entities had even noticed her presence, the amber-eyed girl doubted that they would tolerate sharing their host with her. And, according to her analysis, these entities weren't harmless. 「 _Threat level assessment: moderately-high. Recommended course of action: preemptive extermination of potential hostiles._ 」 With the course of action clear, the girl activated her innate Anti-Magic Field – using the boy's mana to power it up, of course – and initiated her attack against these strange magical entities residing within her host…

And while the girl was unable to recognize the magic behind those entities – it matched neither Belkan nor Mid-Childan schools – her AMF was still able to destroy their spell matrices and suffocate them by denying them access to the boy's mana.

Once the potential threats to her were eliminated, the girl turned her attention to her host's Linker Core. It seemed to be attuned to the same abnormal magic that those two entities had been made of, but it also had a latent affinity towards the Belkan school of magic. Enhancing that affinity was a logical thing to do as it should reduce the chances of her host dying from complications during Eclipse's integration – the magic users appeared to be quite rare on this world, and if her host died before her wounds were healed, the things might become problematic for her. Thus, the amber-eyed girl began the necessary preparations for altering his Linker Core...

 **~/ *** \~**

When Harry woke up, it was late afternoon. Possibly even dinner time already. He could only imagine what aunt Petunia and uncle Vernon would do to him for missing out on his chores. And he was reasonably sure that his punishment would only get worse if he didn't return to #4, Privet drive as soon as possible. Thus, mustering up his strength, the young Potter tried to stand up.

That turned out to be a much harder task than he expected: his entire body felt like it was made from lead and sharp pain shooting through his head every step wasn't helping any. He was also shivering badly as if he was running a fever – though it likely was nothing more than the result of him lying on cold ground for several hours. Strange tar-like and mildly-caustic substance that seemed to be leaking out of the lightning-shaped scar on his forehead, though, wasn't as easy to explain... Scratch that, Harry had no idea what it was and how it came to be. Still, he was reasonably sure that he didn't want it anywhere near himself, so he proceeded to clumsily wipe it off his forehead as fast as possible.

And while he was doing that, he noticed a few large bloodstains next to himself. A quick inspection of his body – which, surprisingly, wasn't hurting anywhere as much as Harry was expecting it to, given the torment the Dudley's gang had subjected him to – revealed that this blood wasn't his: there were no wounds anywhere on his body and his clothes, while really dirty, weren't dirty with blood…

In his current state, however, the bespectacled boy could only idly wonder about what had happened to the mysterious person that left this bloodstain; then his thoughts bounced back to himself as he wondered how he will pull through the current crisis: he was going to be punished really bad by his aunt and uncle for his 'sloth'.

And since this punishment was only going to get worse if he continued to hang about – er... wherever he was – the young Potter mustered all the strength that was left in his body and, rising to his feet, began the long journey 'home'...

* * *

"Hey, boy! Where have you been? Because of your tardiness I had to cook dinner myself!" Aunt Petunia attacked as soon as Harry stepped inside #4, Privet drive. A moment later, though, the woman paused her tirade when she saw that her nephew could hardly stand on his feet. "Boy?" She asked with a surprising amount of concern in her voice. "What's going on?" Harry, however, couldn't answer her; having completely exhausted all of his strength, he lost his consciousness and fell onto the floor like a marionette with its strings cut. "Boy?"

"What's going on, Pet?" Vernon asked, peeking from the living room.

"Dunno." Mrs. Dursley replied. "The brat has returned just now. And then he collapsed and..." Kneeling next to Harry, Petunia placed her hand on his forehead. "Oh my God!" She exclaimed just a moment later "It's like he's on fire!"

"Good." Vernon replied. "Maybe he will finally die and stop subjecting us to his freakishness." This earned him a hard glare from his wife.

"We can't let him die!" She protested unhesitatingly.

"And why is that?" The walrus-like man asked, clearly in disagreement with that statement.

"If the boy dies, more freaks will come. And they all will start snooping around our house." Petunia explained. "Do you really want that, Vernon?" Mr. Dursley shook his head.

"I guess, you're right, Pet." He said. "But won't have him sullying our living room or – God forbid – any of our bedrooms." He delivered an ultimatum. Petunia thought about it for a few seconds: she most definitely had no desire to be treating Harry in his cupboard under the stairs.

"We can put him in the attic." She said finally. "Actually." She added a couple of moments later. "We should probably move him there permanently; he's getting too big for the cupboard and it's not like we're using our attic for anything important." Thinking about this for a bit, Vernon agreed with the idea.

"Fine." He grumbled. "I'll clear the attic and move freak's things there. And you make sure that other freaks have no reason to meddle with our lives." Nodding, Petunia began treating her nephew. And now that she was really paying attention to him, she noticed a strange purplish-blue tattoo that looked like a tribal fire drawing on his right wrist. It most definitely wasn't there in the morning, and it didn't look like something the boy could have gotten through normal means. More freakishness? Her fears were soon confirmed when this 'tattoo' expanded a little as it slowly crept up Harry's hand. And, somehow, her intuition was telling her that this marking was magical and had something to do with the boy's sudden 'illness'...

What the hell was going on here?

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That's all, folks!  
 **Read** and **Review**!


	2. Awakening

The second chapter of the " ** _Power of Eclipse_** " story is here for your enjoyment, folks!

 *** Review Response**:  
 **Hayane234** , **Ranmaleopard** , **trackff** , **Locothehood** , **fellow** , **7 Winds** , **lala** , thank you for your reviews, folks!  
 **ultima-owner** , except they aren't really 'tattoos'.  
 **Duel** , **7 Winds** , hopefully this story won't be a bore.  
 **raynisia** , even in "Nanoha" canon people who can use spells from a different styles exists, even if they are quite rare. Lutecia was born as a Mid-Childan mage, yet her summoning uses Belkan style.  
 **mmiller25819** , (imitating Yuri's whispers) _no, comrade-premier, it has only begun_.

 *** Authors' Notes**: The Eclipse Factor was somewhat altered from its canon depiction in this story in hopes of making it less game-breaking. In short, pretty much all of its powers now require mana to function. And once mana runs out, an Eclipse Driver is just as vulnerable to magic as a civilian. And even if the Driver does have mana to power their anti-magic aura, the more powerful spells like _**Starlight Breaker**_ , _**Ragnarok**_ or pretty much every Breaker-level spell, will be able to (partially) bypass that aura and hurt them. Meanwhile, Combat Protective Clothing (aka Eclipse Barrier Jacket) now no longer require the Driver to have his Divider, though without one CPC offers much less protection.

* * *

 **Disclaimer** : " ** _Harry Potter_** " and " _ **Mahou Shoujou Lyrical Nanoha**_ " belong to their respective owners. No profit is being made. The same goes for any other media that might be used as the sources of ideas and inspiration.

"speaking"  
" _telepathy_ "  
「 _Devices speaking_ 」  
' _thinking_ '  
" **spells** "

Additional **Disclaimer** : The authors of this story **in no way approve** murder as a solution to interpersonal conflicts.

* * *

 **Power of Eclipse  
Chapter II: Awakening**

For an entire week Harry remained unconscious as his sudden and unexplained disease tortured his body. During this time, the strange 'tattoo' on his right hand steadily grew larger and larger, stopping only when the 'fires' were covering his forearm almost entirely. And this wasn't the only noticeable change that happened to the young Potter during this time: his hair also became even more messy – 'spiky' might actually be a better term to describe them at this point – and the two front locks were now curling towards each other, as if trying to form a cross at the center of his forehead.

The changes weren't limited to his appearance either: when Harry finally woke up, he immediately noticed that he no longer needed his glasses. Somehow, he now had a nigh-perfect eyesight. It was a 'miracle' he had no explanation for, just like he had no idea where that thing on his right forearm came from. Similarly, Harry had no idea why his character changed so much: he was so irritable and full of hate now. And his self-preservation instincts appeared to have been muted – there was no other explanation why he would argue back with his relatives when they tried to reprove him for daring to fall ill and not doing his chores for an entire week.

This newfound defiance of his, understandably, didn't sit well with the Dursleys. And while they were too shocked to really do anything about it the first time Harry stood up to them, they were ready when it happened again just a few hours later. As soon as the 'freak' made another refusal to accept his well-deserved punishment for his laziness, Vernon grabbed a phone book from a coffee table in the living room and swung it at the ungrateful brat's head, intent to make it clear who was the boss in this house.

That turned out to be a big mistake…

Harry saw the attack coming and it made something dark that was sleeping deep within him wake up. Suddenly he found himself a passenger in his own body, watching helplessly as 'he' dodged a sloppy attack before grabbing his uncle's outstretched arm and throwing him over himself, making the entire house shake as the man hit the floor. Whatever was possessing him wasn't done yet, however. It raised his arm – which, Harry noticed, was now surrounded by some sort of ethereal purplish fire – and tried to smash Vernon's head into a bloody mess.

Yet, despite there being no love lost between him and his relatives, the young Potter just couldn't bring himself to commit a murder. Something was controlling him right now, and he'd be damned if he let it do however it pleased with his body and his life. And so, with a titanic exertion of willpower, Harry pushed the alien influence off his mind and took control over his body back, stopping its attack just a moment before it would've ended the Dursley patriarch's life.

As the realization of what has almost happened settled, Harry took several steps back before glancing at his arm, eyes widening as he took in the sight of his arm, still lit by the dying ethereal flames. The strange tattoo-thing he had there was a lot bigger now and it was _moving_ , shifting ominously like an angry hive. It demanded blood to be spilt and seethed from being denied. A few moments passed by in complete, deafening silence as his Uncle and Aunt eyed him fearfully. Then he bolted out of the house and onto the street, then running in a random direction away from the neighborhood without paying attention to his surroundings.

When he finally stopped after running for who knows how long, he found himself on the grounds of some factory on the indigent outskirts of Little Whinging, long-abandoned if the desiccated state of structures around him was of any indication. Harry absent-mindedly searched through the grounds on the lookout for a place to hide from this cruel world. He walked randomly around the grounds, caring little about his surroundings other than what could be a good spot to hide in. Harry jumped over a large, rusted steel pipe, nearly stumbling in surprise as it creaked, spider web cracks appearing on the pipe where he stood. He quickly jumped down on the other side of the pipe, resolving to be a bit more careful in his further exploration. After what seemed like an hour, he came across a small, sheltering nook situated among the rusting machinery and crawled inside. There he finally let his emotions completely overwhelm him and broke down, first with tears and then with aggression shortly after.

Why… Why was this happening? Why was everything making him so damn angry?.. What was that ghostly fire that had enveloped his arm?.. Why had he almost murdered his Uncle for nothing more than _trying to hit_ him? Nothing made sense… Absolutely nothing made sense anymore… What was going on?.. What was wrong with him?

As those thoughts swarmed inside his head, he continued trashing his surroundings, completely oblivious to the pain he suffered as he tore through the flimsy, rotten drywalls and rusty metal panels alike with his bare hands.

Eventually though, this carnage came to an end as he ran out of steam, his hands bloodied and raw, clothes torn here and there. As his tired and exhausted body collapsed onto the dirt, he continued sobbing quietly until a restless sleep finally claimed him.

* * *

When Harry woke up early in the next morning, his first reaction was to panic as he found himself in an unfamiliar place. Then, the memories of the day before came rushing, reminding him that he now could never return back to the Dursleys' house. He was on his own now. And, without a roof over his head and with no food on the table, it was a thought far more terrifying than he could've imagined in the past.

After a while, having calmed to a somewhat-reasonable level from his minor panic attack, he decided to explore his surroundings properly. The factory was not in the best of shapes, with much of the machinery there rusted to the point of being completely unusable and ready to fall apart. The walls and the roof were full of holes that let cold sunlight of early spring inside and didn't offer much protection from the elements.

The second floor, which included an office block that was somewhat separated from the workshop and could be accessed via a rusty metal stairway that gave a lurch in a few places, was only a little better off. The rooms there were paned with glass and let one see outside, though unfortunately the glass was broken and shattered everywhere, and none of the rooms had any real furniture left, just some old and dirty barrels, pallets and some bits of broken wood..

The third floor was a just as underwhelming as, aside from a lot of 'trash', there wasn't much up there other than empty space. Well, there was a random tarp over some of the junk so that could be useful for something later. Having explored the factory itself he walked back down to the ground floor, taking care not to make either stairway fall apart on him, and began to explore the grounds around the main building.

The outside was just as bad as the inside: the large yard surrounded by a chain-link fence was dirty and mostly empty, save for a few piles of various industrial junk scattered about. There was a couple of small building there, and large pile of rubble that probably was another one in the past, but a quick exploration of those buildings showed that they have both been stripped of anything valuable long time ago.

Beginning to become quite frustrated with the lack of anything that could be useful, though why he expected anything here to be useful in the first place was a thought for another time, Harry set out into the wooded copse set behind the factory. After a rather long bout of searching around the scanty and wan woods he finally found something that made his frustration quell slightly, a little stream of water that was somehow wasn't downright terrible or poisoned with pollution, though it didn't taste good by any means.

Satisfied that he had found at least one necessity for survival near his… current residence, he continued to look around to see if there was anything that could be constituted as edible nearby, and was rewarded with nothing. Barely suppressing a growl of annoyance, he made his way back into the factory's main yard and took a moment to consider his next action. He still needed to find a source of food for himself, and it clearly was something that just couldn't be done without leaving this hole. Thus he turned his attention towards the houses of Little Whinging that he could see in a distance.

The lights he could see in the windows made it clear that the people lived there. And where the people lived, there also were various shops and stores that sold food and other necessities. The things he so sorely needed right now. Yes, he was planning to commit a crime now, and he was surprisingly okay with this, something that unnerved him more than a little. But as soon as his stomach growled, he discarded these thoughts altogether.

* * *

Harry had no idea how long he wandered or how many houses he passed before he came upon the first store. Wasting no more time as his stomach kept reminding him that he hasn't eaten anything in quite awhile, he entered the shop quietly and, before the clerk caught sight of him, quickly dove into an aisle.

As stealthily as he possibly could he went around the shop, plucking small items from the shelves, the things that no one would miss and which weren't very noticeable when stuffed into his pockets. After several minutes of gathering the edibles, the little thief made his way towards the entrance, carefully waiting until the clerk was looking away for a reason he didn't care about and, trying not to draw attention to himself, left the shop with his prizes.

Once he was a couple of blocks away, he took a single look back to make sure he wasn't followed by anyone. And seeing that the coast was indeed clear, he took one of his pilfered goods from his pocket, a package of crackers, and started eating them. By the time he had reached another store he had already gone through all of the food he had ... _liberated_ , but at least he had quelled his hunger for the time being. Just like he did the previous time, Harry entered the shop and ducked out of sight, though unlike before this clerk didn't look like they were paying attention to the store, which was fine by him.

Another set of pilfering had him with some more edible stuff, and he took his chances and grabbed himself a single blanket. It wasn't thick and didn't look to be very warm, but it was certainly better than nothing. And just like he did it before, he left the store quickly and without a sound when the clerk wasn't paying attention.

After 'visiting' another two stores he decided that it was the time to head back to his current 'home'. And as he walked past all those perfectly-normal houses of Little Whinging, anger was slowly building up within him for no discernible reason. By the time he finally left the town, the anger was practically bubbling under his skin, making it quite hard for him to even think straight.. If this was what awaited him on every trip to civilization, it was probably for the best that he stayed away from other humans and took his unexplainable aggression out on the junk strewn about his 'residence'.

 **~/ *** \~**

As he returned 'home' from another trip out to Little Whinging with what was becoming his usual plunder of food as well as the usual amount of anger he somehow gained whenever he was around humans, Harry noticed someone loitering in his yard. Immediately, his accumulated anger turned into white-hot burning fury. Still, it wasn't overwhelming enough to completely take away his ability to reason.

Without making a sound he put his looted goods into one of the hiding spots and stalked towards the lanky man in old and dirty, ragged clothes; an alcoholic homeless judging by the bottle of some beverage he was holding unsteadily in his hands. Letting out another growl, Harry picked up a piece of wood from a pile of rubble he walked past. This alerted the man to his presence, but he had no chance to do anything as a moment later the green-eyed boy, empowered by rage, struck him with his makeshift weapon, sending him crushing onto the ground. Letting go of his bottle, the man tried to cover his hurt stomach, but Harry was having none of it.

Without giving the trespasser of _his_ domain a chance to do or say anything, he attacked again, this time bring the plank down onto the man's head with a resounding crack, the rotting wood breaking upon contact with the man's skull. Discarding the now useless piece of wood, Harry continued his assault with his bare fists, each strike aimed at the drunkard's head, but now that he didn't have his weapon anymore, he found himself at a disadvantage due to his shorter stature, the man managing to throw him off with a few poorly-aimed, desperate kicks to his abdomen.

And while the green-eyed Potter was getting back to his feet, the drunkard pulled a small knife from one his pockets and charged the younger boy, who was unable to completely avoid the attack. Harry however managed to twist his body to reduce the damage the wild swing might do to him, a good thing as instead of gutting him completely, the knife merely left a bleeding gash across his torso.

The moment the pain filled his being, Harry found himself little more than a spectator as the unfortunately-familiar bloodthirsty spirit that nearly killed uncle Vernon sometime ago took over his body once again, and whatever _that thing_ was, _it_ wasn't fucking around. _It_ quickly grabbed the man by his head before making a step backwards, causing the bastard to lose his balance. Then a fraction of a second later, it pushed the drunkard's head downwards and right into _its_ rapidly rising knee.

Harry couldn't be sure, but it looked like this has already ended the poor man's life, yet, _the accursed spirit_ wasn't done yet, and after lifting the man by his head a little, it slammed him head-first into the ground with enough force actually paint the dirt red with blood and let a crunch echo through the yard. There was no way in Hell the man was still alive after something like that… and the spirit apparently knew that as well as it suddenly released its control over Harry's body and disappeared into the dark and twisted depths of his mind, leaving the young Potter one on one with a fresh corpse.

Taking a few shaky steps away from the corpse, Harry took a few deep breaths to clear his head. Why was he bothered so little by what has just happened? He has taken someone's life, for God's sake! Shaking his head as he suppressed the feeling that he was forgetting about something that might be quite important, he approached the body and began rifling through the dead man's stuff. Most of this stuff was quite worthless to him, but the couple of pounds he found in one of the pockets were immediately pilfered. Next came the man's knife and the holster it went into - those were taken from the bastard's body even faster than the currency. And as he raised the blade to his eyes to inspect it, Harry saw that it was colored red with blood, _his own blood_. Yet, for whatever reason, he felt no pain from his wound. And looking down at his chest he saw that while his clothes were all dirty with blood, he wasn't bleeding anymore. Miraculously, a wound that should've taken weeks to heal disappeared right in front of his eyes. Shaking his head to push the questions about what the hell was going on here aside, he returned his attention to his loot…

The knife he had pried from the dead man's hand wasn't anything noteworthy: it was a simple pocket knife with an unadorned wooden handle and a steel blade, altogether being a little more than two of his fists long. It was a decently-sharp knife, though Harry just knew he'd have to sharpen it pretty soon if he wanted to keep it in a good condition… Sliding his new 'toy' into its holster and affixing it on his pants, he grabbed the man by his collar with both hands and proceeded to drag the dead body out of his yard. Once off the factory's territory, he threw the corpse into in the woods, before returning to the gate and collecting his goods before he walked back into his 'home'.

As he approached his 'bedroom', another disturbing thought occurred to Harry: not only wasn't he at all bothered by the thought that he had killed someone just a few minutes ago, but, somehow, this also made him feel much better. For some inexplicable reason, after many days of anger that never truly went away, he was now so calm. It was just ...wrong. And if his guess about what made his anger disappear was right, he has made a right decision to stay the hell away from the Dursleys and the rest of Little Whinging.

 **~/ *** \~**

Around three months passed since Harry had been irrevocably changed by that unexplained disease, and things weren't getting any easier for him. In fact, it was getting progressively harder for him to keep his violent urges suppressed, and even venting his fury regularly wasn't doing much for him anymore. It was almost a miracle that he hadn't sent some unfortunate bastard that ticked him off to the afterlife yet... Something needed to be done about his condition, and fast. Yet, the young Potter had absolutely no idea what he had to do to stop his descent into this blood-stained madness.

And between his constant foraging, blowing off at the abandoned factory that he now called his home and occasional outing to the city he didn't have much time to think up new and better ways to keep his aggressiveness under control either. Not that he was likely to get the answers he needed as he still had absolutely no idea was exactly was causing all this in the first place... One thing he was sure about, though, was that the root of his problem wasn't something mundane. Maybe magic actually existed and someone had placed him under some sort of a curse?.. Why couldn't his life be a little simpler?

Growling in annoyance and anger as unwanted questions filled his head and made concentrating on his thoughts all but impossible, the young Potter leaned back against the wall and took a deep breath to calm down. He _really_ wanted to punch something right now, and no matter how abandoned this place might be, there always was a chance that someone would happen across him while he was venting… And considering what happened the last time he got disturbed at such a bad moment, it was very possible he'd end up killing whichever poor soul that came across him.

Taking another deep breath to further quell his anger, the green-eyed boy glanced at an old and dirty alarm-clock sitting on his 'table', if it could be called that. He wasn't sure what he actually hoped to gain from looking at that barely-working piece of junk, but... Suddenly the world around him receded into the background as a very strange feeling – like something ghostly and warm was stirring within him – struck him. Almost immediately his body got surrounded by a soft whitish glow that, after several moments, separated from him and flowed into a humanoid form 'standing' a few feet away from him. A couple of seconds passed and the light faded away, revealing a girl unlike anyone Harry had ever seen before.

She appeared to be around sixteen years old and had waist-long wavy light-gray hair, pale skin and emotionless, dead amber eyes. Her clothes consisted of a plain white robe made from some sort of a rough synthetic material and (presumably) nothing else. In her hands, she was holding a grayish leather book with a large silvery cross on the back – or was it front – cover.

That, however, mattered little to the young Potter right now: this unknown girl was a trespasser of his domain and needed to be dealt with. Moving with a speed that surprised even himself, he grabbed the girl by the front of her robe and threw her onto his 'bed' roughly, pinning her down to it under his own weight.

"Who are you?" He growled as he pressed his forearm in her throat.

「 _This unit is a Prototype Strosek Reactor Plug; identification code SP-001x._ 」 The mysterious girl replied without even a hint of an emotion – any emotion – appearing in her voice. Harry stared at her, completely taken aback with the strangest way she 'introduced' herself. And while he was overcome by his confusion, the girl pushed his hand away from her throat, but did no further attempts to escape.

"Give me you name!" He demanded.

「 _In conversations among its creators, this unit has been often referred to as 'Zero'._ 」 She replied in the same emotionless voice. Well... That wasn't a real name, but at least it was something.

"What are you?" The green-eyed boy asked next. True, Zero did introduce herself as a prototype 'Strosek Reactor Plug', but he had absolutely no idea what that meant. Right now, the only thing he was sure about was the fact that she wasn't a normal human: normal people, as far as he knew, don't suddenly appear out of thin air in a damn light show. Nor do they act so emotionless, like damn machines, when faced with the possibility of getting killed.

「 _This unit is a Prototype Strosek Reactor Plug._ 」 The girl replied flatly, causing the young Potter to grind his teeth in frustration. He needed a straight and complete answer, not some crap like this.

"I ask again, what are you? Explain in details." He inquired with a low growl. There was a pretty long pause, during which Zero, apparently, tried to determined what information she was allowed to share with him. Eventually, she gave an answer:

「 _This unit was created with the purpose of improving the abilities of Eclipse Drivers while suppressing the Factor's negative side effects while merged with or in close proximity with associated Driver._ 」 For a moment it looked like she was finished, but then she continued: 「 _Additionally, this unit is capable of limited independent operation, including using Eclipse spells registered with the Storage unit._ 」 She said, while nodding towards the book she held in her hands.

The green-eyed boy let out a frustrated sigh. He still had no damn idea what Zero was, and now he had several more questions that needed answers floating around in his head.

"Okay..." He breathed out. "Driver is someone who carries this Eclipse factor, right?" Receiving a simple 'yes' in response, he asked the next questions: "You say you can merge with someone? Is that what you've been doing until now? Is that... magic? As in, real magic with spells and everything? And what exactly this Eclipse thing is?" He bombarded the girl with questions, turning into a normal ten years old boy that was curious about the world around him for the moment.

「 _Magic indeed exists, and you appear to be the only person in the immediate area, who has an active Linker Core, which is necessary for casting spells._ 」 Zero replied. 「 _The ability of this unit to merge and react with an Eclipse Driver is also magical in nature. It has been merged with you for the last 97 planetary revolutions._ 」 If that was a weird way of saying 'days', then, Harry calculated, this girl has been merged with him ever since he had been hit by that mysterious sickness a little over three months ago. Meanwhile, Zero began answering his next question: 「 _Eclipse Factor is a magical enhancement method, presumably of Ancient Belkan origin, that drastically improves a mage's physical capabilities, grants protection against elements and magical attacks and grants enhanced self-healing. Most of these abilities can be further improved by a Strosek Reactor Plug._ 」

"Ah... I see..." The young Potter replied as he finally let Zero out of his grasp. It was kind of hard for him to wrap his head around what he had just learned, but, at least, some of the more outlandish things that kept happening to him now made some sense... Still, he had more questions that needed answers, and probably the most important one of them was: "And what about the negative side-effects of this Eclipse Factor thing? You've mentioned that you, as a Reactor Plug, can suppress those." He said.

「 _Eclipse Factor, being a tool of war, significantly increases Driver's aggressiveness and forces them into nearly-constant state of acute stress response. A Strosek Reactor Plug like this unit can partially suppress these effects when merged with or in close proximity with associated Driver._ 」 Zero replied. 「 _This unit has been suppressing such effect for you for the 97 planetary revolutions it has been merged with you._ 」 Damn. That was the only thing that Harry could think upon hearing this revelation: he was barely keeping his Eclipse-induced urges for violence suppressed, and, turns out, that was with Zero's support. He shuddered to think what would have happened to him if he had no help at all.

"Thanks, I guess." He said. After a pretty long pause he added: "And sorry for attacking you like that."

「 _Apology accepted._ 」 The amber-eyed girl replied emotionlessly.

"Now then." The young Potter continued. "What am I going to do with you? I highly doubt I can manage to support us both. Can you merge back with me or something?"

「 _This unit can merge with you to remain unnoticed by the third parties._ 」 Zero replied, before getting enveloped with soft white glow. This glow then flowed inside Harry, causing that strange feeling of 'warm ghost' shifting within him. 「 _This unit is capable of communicating with you in this state as well._ 」 She informed him next, her voice sounding right inside his head.

"Whoa." He breathed out. "And can you hear me, Zero?"

「 _Yes._ 」 She replied. 「 _This unit can hear you when you speak.」 After a small pause, she added: 「However, associated database entries imply that it might be better for you communicate with this unit telepathically. To do that, you need to concentrate on the image of this unit while thinking/reciting your message in your mind._ 」 So, he could speak telepathically now? Letting out a deep breath and closing his eyes, he conjured a picture of Zero in his mind. Next, following her advice, he tried to reach her:

" _Like this?_ " He 'asked'. And, much to his surprise, it appeared to have worked. And on the very first attempt no less!

「 _Yes. This unit can hear you._ 」 Zero confirmed.

" _Cool!_ " The green-eyed boy 'said' next. It was followed by a lengthy pause, before he 'spoke' again: " _By the way, since you and I both can use magic,.. Maybe you could teach me some?_ " He asked.

「 _This unit possesses very limited knowledge of actual spells._ 」 Was the response he got. 「 _But this unit does not see any problems with sharing the knowledge available to it. In addition to magic, this unit can teach you the basics of sciences, magical history and the most common languages used on the Administered Worlds._ 」

" _Administered Worlds? What are those?_ " Harry asked.

「 _Administered worlds are a group of seventy four worlds that are governed by an organization called Time-Space Administrative Bureau. Significant portion of those worlds' population is capable of at least limited use of magic._ 」 Zero elaborated.

" _Oh._ " The young Potter replied. " _Than, I guess, languages would be useful too._ " There was a small pause, before he continued: " _It's getting late now, so why don't we postpone these lessons until some later time?_ "

「 _Acceptable._ 」 The Strosek-girl replied, before going silent.

Nodding to himself, Harry turned his attention back to his thoughts. His foraged supplies were running low and the usual way he procured them in the past was no longer available due to the shop he frequently ...borrowed from becoming insolvent and closing down. He needed to think up a new way to get the food on his table lest he starved to death after surviving on his own for this long.

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That's all, folks!  
 **Read** and **Review**!


	3. Magic and more Magic

The third chapter of the " ** _Power of Eclipse_** " story is here for your enjoyment, folks!

 *** Review Response**:  
 **Innortal** , **ultima-owner** , **raynisia** , **davycrockett100** , thank you for your reviews, folks!  
 **7 Winds** , yes, Zero will eventually graduate into 'proper' character from 'just a machine' she sees herself as now. But that won't happen soon. And she's never a romantic option (or whatever passes for romance for Eclipse Drivers), so this story won't feature Harry/Zero ever.  
 **Jostanos** , yes, Zero does have minor sensory abilities and she can detect wizarding magic (hello, quirrellmort?).  
 **Duel** , yes, Eclipse was nerfed compared to what it was in FORCE. But, remember, in FORCE it was so strong that TSAB was forced to use mass weaponry and biological warfare to contain it. I'm not having anything like that in my story. But, don't worry, Eclipse is still plenty strong, it's just not as game-breaking as before.

* * *

 **Disclaimer** : " ** _Harry Potter_** " and " _ **Mahou Shoujou Lyrical Nanoha**_ " belong to their respective owners. No profit is being made. The same goes for any other media that might be used as the sources of ideas and inspiration.

"speaking"  
" _telepathy_ "  
「 _Devices speaking_ 」  
' _thinking_ '  
" **spells** "

Additional **Disclaimer** : The authors of this story **in no way approve** murder as a solution to interpersonal conflicts.

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 **Power of Eclipse  
Chapter III: Magic and more Magic**

Magic, at least in the form Zero was familiar with, was quite different from what Harry imagined. It wasn't done by shouting random nonsense in bastardised Latin while waving some piece of wood around. It was far more sciency than that: one was required to solve quite a complex set of equations to cast even a simple spell. And the math involved was quite beyond the green-eyed Driver's abilities, even with Zero doing her best to teach him stuff. Thankfully, the Strosek-girl was quite capable of doing all those calculations for him, and with inhuman speed and precision.

Unfortunately, her knowledge of actual spells was quite limited and didn't really go beyond a few simple utility spells, such as the one that created a small ball of light next to the caster. Such spells, of course, had their own uses, but… they weren't what Harry wanted. Yet, even if she knew no flashy and powerful spells, Zero still had quite a lot she could teach him when it came to Magic. Indeed, magical energy, mana, could be used in many different ways, and not just to fuel various spells. It could also be used to augment oneself by making the body stronger, faster and tougher. And, when he was using his Magic that way, it was a little easier for Harry to vent his anger - something that he was quite thankful for.

In addition to that Zero also showed him how one's magic could be used to temporarily manifest extremely durable magical armor into existence. For Eclipse Drivers like him such armor was called 'Combat Protective Clothing' and it could take pretty much any appearance he could envision. Harry immediately decided that he absolutely loved this way of using Magic. Indeed, now, for a small cost of his mana, he could have any clothes he desired without having to go through the trouble of stealing them from the shops. And these magical garments would also protect him from all but most serious harm!

The Strosek-girl also explained him a few things about his 'condition'. For example, his anger issues were a 'feature' of Eclipse Factor, meant to make those infected with it eager to fight. Hopefully, without them going rogue. Likewise, the temporary window of lucidity that happened after a kill or a particularly-brutal battle was a way to encourage the Drivers to keep fighting. As for that possession thing… Well, Zero actually didn't know for sure what it was, but all evidence pointed towards it being some sort of a bloodline power that woke up when she altered his Linker Core to be more Belkan, and then got warped by the Eclipse Factor into that bloodthirsty murderous _thing_ that Harry had the misfortune to experience.

Magic and related stuff wasn't the only thing that Zero taught him. She also tried, with varying levels of success, to teach him mathematics, sciences like physics that were related to the spell-casting, and the languages that, supposedly, were commonly used by the magic users living on the Administered World. Funnily enough, one of those languages actually sounded a lot like some strange version of German… And speaking of the Administered Worlds, Zero also educated him about the organization that governed over them, the Time-Space Administrative Bureau.

The Bureau, as it was often referred to, was an interdimensional security force that was founded around seventy years ago to finally bring some measure of peace to the many Worlds that were ravaged by the Belkan Wars for the last few centuries if not longer. Zero actually didn't know when those wars started, but some records in her databases implied that the Belkan Kingdoms might have been in the state of nearly-constant warfare for over a thousand of years… Anyway, the Bureau consisted of several different branches that provided the security to member Worlds, monitored their political and cultural growth and provided them with disaster relief. They were also the keepers of knowledge and maintained an extremely extensive library that was said to contain a copy of every book in existence. Almost certainly a boastful lie, but, still, there likely was a good reason why that place was called _the Infinite Library_.

This Infinite Library probably had answers to the questions about Eclipse Factor that Zero herself did not, but, alas, going there wasn't possible at this time. While Zero did know the Dimensional Transfer spell, which allowed one to jump through **Dimensional Space** from one world to another, it was a piece of Magic that she just didn't have enough mana for. And neither did Harry right now.

 **~/ *** \~**

One morning in the middle of July Harry was woken up by a rather-uncomfortable feeling of being watched intently by some hidden observer. His immediate reaction was to roll off his 'bed' and draw his knife as he got ready to defend what was his. But as he looked around the room, he couldn't spot a single thing out of place; there was nothing that could give him a clue about where his mysterious watcher was… Then, a loud hoot came from the other side of the windows, causing the green-eyed Eclipse Driver to let out a nervous laugh. It was just an owl.

Or, maybe not: the moment the bird saw him put away the knife, it flew into the room through a hole in one of the glass panels and dropped a thick envelop right into his hands. Then it flew to an old bookcase in the corner of the room and landed atop of it. From there, the little feathered fiend continued to watch intently, as if it waiting for him to open the letter. Or, perhaps, it was waiting for him to write a response? Nah, that was just ridiculous.

Still, curious about who might be writing to him and for what purpose, Harry directed his attention to the envelope in his hands. It was made from rough parchment and bore big dark-red wax seal with some official-looking heraldic on it. On the other side of the envelope, written in emerald-green ink, there was his full name as well as the address of his current residence, right down to the room he was sleeping in. That was… creepy as Harry was quite sure no one alive should know where he lived, let alone the room he slept in. Did he have some undetectable crazy stalker who used owls of all things to deliver his letters?

Disregarding that thought and trying to banish the anger that came unbidden with it, he tore the envelope open and pulled out the pages that were inside. Apparently, this strange letter was an invitation to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. And they were expecting him to sent a response via an owl… Was this a bad joke or something? Still, deciding to humor his mysterious prankster, Harry read the 'list or required materials' for this 'school of magic'. And as he did that, he was quickly overcome with annoyance and anger: some of the things on that list were just plain ridiculous and didn't fit anywhere within the quite coherent theory of Magic that Zero has introduced him to during their 'lessons'... The owl, which seemed to be waiting for something from him, apparently could feel his anger rising and shifted uncomfortable as it warily observed the young Eclipse Driver.

Deciding that this prank letter was no longer worth his attention, Harry crumpled it and threw into the far corner of his 'room'. Then, he turned his glare towards his feathered 'guest'. The bird clearly understood what will happen to it should it fail to vacate the room as soon as possible, and so it hurriedly flew out, quickly disappearing from the young Eclipse Driver's sight… Letting out a deep sigh, Harry headed downstairs: he really needed to blow his anger off right now.

* * *

Over the next week Harry received several more of those 'Hogwarts letters', each of them delivered by an owl. And he destroyed all of those letters without ever bothering to even open them. Then, apparently, the mysterious prankster finally got the hint and stopped bothering him with the useless correspondence. For a week that followed, Harry enjoyed his normal life and he was about to let this whole incident go, when, one day, he found an unexpected and uninvited guest invading his territory.

Said 'guest' was a giant of a man, easily twice as tall and six times as wide as Harry himself was and he was wielding… an umbrella… that gave the young Eclipse Driver a very strange feeling… Like it was more than it appeared to be. Plus, according to Zero, this man had some active Magic in him and his Magic was quite similar to the Magic Harry himself had before coming in contact with her and the Eclipse Factor. And that made Harry very wary of this man. Especially since he had no idea what his purpose in coming here was… was he the prankster/stalker or someone that person sent, or was he just passing through? Regardless it would be… dumb to just come out and attack him like he did with that invader in the spring due to this man being larger and definitely stronger. At least, he could easily avoid this giant man by hiding on the second floor: the stairs leading there were in a poor condition and wouldn't be able to support him.

As it was he merely waited on the second floor for the man to either enter the factory or leave the premises. Eventually he got fed up with waiting and banged a metal pipe against the railing, startling the large man and making him look up towards him.

"If you are here for me, state your intentions. If not, _get lost_!" He called from his above, anger clear in his voice. And to accentuate that he was serious, he pointed the pipe towards the man as if it was a sword or some other similar weapon.

"Harry? Is tha' you?" The mysterious giant asked, apparently not fazed at all by the angry preteen. Taking the silence he got in response as a confirmation, he continued: "You are… not wha' I expected yeh to be." There was a brief moment of silence before he added, his voice showing the notes of genuine confusion: "And didn' Dumbledore leave you with yer aunt an' uncle? What are you doin' here?"

The moment his name was brought up, Harry narrowed his eyes at the man while doing his best to keep his rising anger under some control. He was somewhat successful, but only somewhat: he was too mad at the 'giant' for how he _dared to have_ some expectations about his life. Comfortable childhood in a loving middle-class family? Ha! As if the Dursleys could love anyone who wasn't their dear Duddikins! Pushing the unnecessary thoughts about those pigs in the human form away, Harry concentrated his attention on the man in front of him. How did this 'giant' even know his name? Was he working for that stalker person, Dumbledore, or something? Plus, regardless of how this stranger seemed to believe to know him, the young Eclipse Driver had no obligation to share anything about his life with him.

"What do you want?" He growled, feeling really really angry right now… Just a little bit more, and he might turn into a raging berserk that attacks without reasoning, even when faced against suicidal odds. But Harry didn't really want that - he loathed not being in control of himself - so, for his own reasons, he wanted the man to give him a damn good reason why he was intruding on his territory. The man seemed to fumble at the harsh response he got as well as the lack of answers to any questions he asked, and started mumbling something under his breath. He was brought back to reality when Harry startled him again by banging the pipe against the railings once more. Shaking his head, the man then called up to the green-eyed preteen:

"The Headmaster didn' receive a reply from you, so he sent me to come and get yer response in person, and if you agreed I'd be taking yeh to get your things." Surprisingly enough, this answer seemed to have actually dimmed Harry's anger a little. At least the mysterious stalked sending him strange letters might not actually be a stalker after all. Still, whoever that Dumbledore person was, he somehow knew exactly where he was living, and that aggravated Harry greatly… Plus, even if everything written in those letters was true, the magic this Hogwarts school taught was entirely different from anything known to Zero, and, right now, he trusted the Strosek-girl way more than he did the 'giant' in front of him or his mysterious boss. A few clangs resounded through the abandoned factory as Harry tapped his pipe against the railings while he thought up an answer.

"Prove me that your 'magic' thing exists, and I'll think about going to this school of yours." He said as calmly as he could. His request, however, seemed to have made the man quite uncomfortable.

"Well… Yeh see..." He began nervously. "I'm - er - not supposed ter do magic, strictly speakin'." It was clear that the man didn't really want to share the reasons why he wasn't allowed to do magic, so, for now, Harry decided not to pry. "But, well… Yeh think no one will mind if I be doing some anyway?" Taking a stony glare he was receiving as a sign of agreement, the 'giant' pointed his umbrella at a rather big rock on the ground and mumbled something that sounded like a garbled latin under his breath. A moment later, the stone rose into the air and morphed into a pretty decent chair. Appropriately-sized for the man who 'made' it, of course.

Now that was quite interesting, Harry thought. From his 'lessons' with Zero he knew that the spells that allowed the creation of simpler objects from raw materials existed in the Magical Systems used on the Administered Worlds, but those didn't violate the Principle of Mass Conservation. At least, not in such a blatant way… So, yes, whatever strange and insane Magic this local one was, it was real. And there might indeed be a school that taught the proper ways of utilizing it. Would attending such a school be a good idea, though, was a different question.

"Alright." Harry said, giving in a little. "But I can't exactly afford paying for my schooling." Indeed, while he did have a little money, that was only some spare change he picked up during his ...visits to the shops. Nothing that could last him more than a couple of days if he tried to live uprightly.

"You shouldn'ta worry about that, Harry." Hagrid replied, scratching his head. "D'yeh think yer parents didn't leave you anything?" So there was magical money waiting for him to claim it? The young Eclipse Driver thought. He already suspected that his parents weren't actually penniless drunks like his relatives said they were, but this… Proper education wasn't cheap; to have enough money to afford it and then some meant that his late parents must have been quite well off… This day really was getting really strange... And Harry wasn't sure it was a good thing: his self-control was only that good. Any more shocks and he might lose it the next time something annoys him a little too much.

"Alright, fine, let's go." He said, feeling little desire to argue with the demi-giant. Plus, should the things go the way the way he didn't like, he could easily ditch the man and hightail to some faraway place… "By the way, where are we going to?" He asked as he descended to the ground floor, simultaneously changing his Combat Protective Clothing into something more casual-looking. "I don't think the stuff I need for this Hogwarts school is sold openly anywhere around here." Indeed, otherwise he would have already come across stuff like dragon hide or potion cauldrons during his shoplifting excursions.

"London." Hagrid said. "If yeh know where to go, Harry, you can get everything on yer list and more."

* * *

The ride to London went quite well. It was late morning when they got on the train, and with only a few people traveling with them Harry, who was still angry with Hagrid, was able to keep his emotions under tight control. Things took a turn for worse once they arrived to London, though. The young Eclipse Driver was immediately hit with the noise and the crowds of a megalopolis, which stretched his self-control to its very limits. And if it wasn't for Hagrid making a path for him as he plowed through the busy streets like an iceboat through frozen waters, Harry was sure he would've lost control and murdered someone before long. Eventually the two of them arrived to Charrington Cross.

"This is it." Hagrid said as stopped in front a of tiny, grubby-looking pub that the people around them seemed to completely ignore for some reason. "The Leaky Cauldron. It's a famous place." The pub looked a bit too shabby to be as famous as the demi-giant claimed, but Harry couldn't make himself care much about stuff like that, so his only response was an indifferent shrug. "A'ight, let's go, yer things won't buy themselves." Hagrid said as he pulled him inside.

The Leaky Cauldron didn't look the way Harry imagined a famous and well-off establishment either. It was small, dark and noisy. It was not a place he'd want to spend much if any of his time it. Thankfully, all that low buzz of chatter stopped almost as soon as they walked in. Everyone seemed to know Hagrid from somewhere; some of them even waved and smiled at him.

"The usual, Hagrid?" The bartender, who was an old and bald man that looked like a toothless walnut, asked as he reached for an empty glass. The Hogwarts gamekeeper shook his head.

"Can't, Tom, I'm showing a firs'-year around the Alley." The man gave a nod and affirmative before returning to his work. Meanwhile Hagrid led Harry through the pub and out into a small, walled courtyard, where there was nothing but a trash can and a few weeds. The noise there was much more tolerable, and the green-eyed youth let himself relax a little: keeping his emotions under tight control for any extended period of time was still quite tiring for him… "A'ight, Harry, watch closely. This is how you enter the Diagon Alley. Three up and two across." Hagrid said as he counted the bricks in the wall above a trash can, before tapping on that looked much-touched with the tip of his magical umbrella. For a brief moment nothing happened. Then, the bricks began moving, quickly rearranging themselves into a large archway that led onto a cobbled winding street that looked a lot like an image of a medieval market from some children's book.

Unfortunately for Harry, this street was as crowded and noisy as those the other side of the Leaky Cauldron. And the fact the people there were trading things that made no sense at all to him only made the situation worse. Still, he'd made a decision that he wanted to know a bit more about this strange magic, and he wasn't about to revise it just yet. Thus, steeling himself, he followed Hagrid into the Diagon Alley, absentmindedly noting how the archway reverted back into solid wall once they passed through it.

"Alright, where are we going first?" Harry asked.

"You'll need yer money to buy stuff, so - Gringotts. It's the Wizards' bank, ran by goblins." Hagrid replied, while pointing towards a large and somewhat misshapen building of white marble that towered over the nearby shops. There was a brief moment of silence, before he warned in a very serious tone: "Never mess with goblins, Harry." Then, the demi-giant continued in his normal voice: "Gringotts is the safest place in the world fer anything yeh want ter keep safe - 'cept maybe Hogwarts." That, however, sounded a lot like some marketing thing, so the young Eclipse Driver wasn't sure how much he could trust these words.

As Harry and Hagrid walked up the steps leading to the entrance of the bank, the goblin guards, clad in red and gold uniforms, turned towards the young boy and scrutinized him with their small, beady, black eyes. He stared back coldly at the one on the right, and growled lowly at it, making the small gesture as intimidating as he possibly could make it. This had a somewhat unexpected result as the creatures actually looked _impressed_ by the sheer tenacity of this human kid. This exchange, however, went nowhere further as Hagrid entered Gringotts and Harry had to hurry after him.

The two of them passed through another set of thick ornate doors, before entering a vast hall finished with marble. Maybe a hundred of goblins were sitting on high stools behind a long counter, serving the bank's clients or doing things like weighing coins or examining precious stones. And even more goblins were showing people in and out of the many doors leading out of this hall. Without giving Harry much time to look around, the Hogwarts gamekeeper made his way to the nearest free teller.

"Afternoon." He said to the goblin. "We've come ter take some money outta Mr. Harry Potter's vault." The creature eyed the two of them for a long moment, before asking:

"And does Mr. Harry Potter have his key?" Before the Eclipse Driver could start panicking as he most definitely didn't have any keys to any vaults in his possession, Hagrid nodded and started emptying his pockets onto the counter, scattering things like moldy dog biscuits over the goblin's book of numbers. The teller was certainly not happy about this, but kept his mouth shut.

"Found it!" The half-giant announced finally as he held up a small golden key with the number 687 etched on it. The goblin leaned forward on his stool to inspect it.

"The key seems to be in order." It said after a little while. "However, we would also like to verify Mr. Harry Potter's identity." The instant those words left the teller's mouth, half a dozen of goblin guards, all of them clad in polished steel armor and armed with gleaming halberds, appeared around them. Harry's immediate reaction was to draw his knife and fight for his life, but he forced himself not to do that. After all, it was clear as a day that he stood no chance against these opponents, and should he actually arm himself, they were all but guaranteed to attack. "The guards will escort you to the Chamber of Truth. And if you are indeed Mr. Harry Potter, you have nothing to fear from them."

That did not ease his anxiety in the slightest, but he followed the goblin and escort through one of the many doors and into a corridor. Hagrid tried to follow after him, but the teller-Goblin called out for him to remain behind as this was a private affair. It took a short while to get to the 'Chamber of Truth', which as the name implied was a moderately-large chamber, barren except for a simple stone pedestal at the center with an ornate bowl sitting atop of it. Each of the guards that had escorted him broke off to the walls as they neared the center, the teller speaking quietly with another Goblin that had escaped his notice before leaving the way they had come.

The new Goblin didn't waste any time, calmly leading Harry over to the bowl.

"To prove that you are indeed the one you claim to be, human, place seven drops of your blood into the ritual basin." The creature said, while offering the young Eclipse Driver a wicked-looking ceremonial knife. Harry eyed the blade apprehensively, afraid that it might be poisoned or something, but he then quickly dispelled this thought: why would the goblins bother with that if the guards here could slay him regardless? And so he took the blade and cut his hand, hissing in pain as it gashed his flesh. Then, he placed his cut hand over the bowl, hoping that he managed to draw enough blood and the Eclipse Factor kicking in and healing the wound wouldn't screw him over… Once the necessary number of blood drops was inside the bowl, he returned the blade to the goblin.

"What now?" He asked, having no desire to spend any more time in this chamber than was absolutely necessary. The goblin seemed to be actually amused by his hastiness.

"Now we wait." The ritual-master said with a snarl, baring his yellowed pointed teeth. "Did you expect the Magic to solve all of your problems in an instant, foolish human?" Harry let out a low growl, but didn't say anything in response as he waited for whatever Magic that the goblins used to verify people's identities to finish its job. And he needn't wait for too long: maybe half a minute later the bowl began glowing. This glow then spread onto the pedestal and the chamber's floor, forming intricate patterns that made sense only to the goblin who was conducting the ritual. "Hm… This is very unusual." The goblin said thoughtfully as he examined the glowing patterns.

"Huh?" Was Harry's response to that proclamation as he most certainly couldn't make head or tails from what he was seeing, much less find anything out of norm with it. Beyond the fact that this Magic worked in the ways that were completely illogical to him, that it.

"The blood you gave us doesn't match that of Mr. Harry Potter that we sampled when creating the trust vault for him. However, you are clearly recognized as a member of house Potter, son of James F. Potter and Lily J. Potter nee Evans. And you are of right age to be their only known child..." The young Eclipse Driver once again could respond only with an eloquent 'huh' as the ritual-master continued: "For that reason, I believe that our records have an error - the first one in many decades - and, rest assured, it shall be corrected. You are free to withdraw your money from our bank, human." Then he turned to the guards, barking the orders to escort Harry out of the 'Chamber of Truth' to them.

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That's all, folks!  
 **Read** and **Review**!


	4. Shopping for Hogwarts

The fourth chapter of the " ** _Power of Eclipse_** " story is here for your enjoyment, folks!

 *** Review Response**:  
 **wahyubison** , sorry, but no; Harry is the only Potter alive. At least for the time being... As **Jostanos** and **Hikari Nova** correctly reviewed, it was the combined effect of Eclipse Factor and Zero 'upgrading' his Linker Core that caused this little mishap.  
 **davycrockett100** , **ultima-owner** , **The Ultimate Balance Chaos** , **Ranmaleopard** , thank you for your reviews, folks!  
 **Duel** (guest), no, Harry wasn't reacted with Zero at that time; she is merely merged with him. As for the goblins and their security... Well, Harry still appears as someone directly related to late James and Lily Potter and there are no other known Potter children in existence. So, yeah, he can only be the Harry Potter.  
 **LordGhostStriker** , his appearance did change a little (outside of those markings on his hands) from Zero tweaking his Linker Core as she brought his Belkan heritage to the fore. And, I actually left a little hint as to whom Harry is apparently (very distantly) related to.

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 **Disclaimer** : " ** _Harry Potter_** " and " _ **Mahou Shoujou Lyrical Nanoha**_ " belong to their respective owners. No profit is being made. The same goes for any other media that might be used as the sources of ideas and inspiration.

"speaking"  
" _telepathy_ "  
「 _Devices speaking_ 」  
' _thinking_ '  
" **spells** "

Additional **Disclaimer** : The authors of this story **in no way approve** murder as a solution to interpersonal conflicts.

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 **Power of Eclipse  
Chapter ****IV: Shopping for Hogwarts**

Once the guards escorting him back to the bank's main atrium left, Harry was approached by a goblin youth whose name he didn't care about that was going to take him down to his vault. Hagrid, who was determined to be the best guide into the wizarding world he could be, was tagging along as well, even if he looked like he'd rather stay up there for some reason… As it turned out, going down to one's vault included a ride through a labyrinth of narrow tunnels on a small rattling cart. Personally, Harry found this ride to be very exciting, but he seemed to be the only one who thought like that. The goblin was simply too used to this, and Hagrid… Well, these carts apparently made the half-giant sick.

Anyway, a visit to his trust vault made it clear to the green-eyed Eclipse Driver that his parents, whoever they were, were more than just well off. Why else there would be a small mountain of gold coins sitting in his trust vault? Seeing all this gold made him think about all those times the Dursleys told him that his parents were good-for-nothing penniless drunks. And those memories were making burning anger swell within him. Thankfully, he managed to quickly suppress his anger, thus avoiding flying off the handle at such a bad moment. Wasting no time, as he had no idea for how long he will be able to control his anger Harry piled some of that gold - enough to last him a term or two, if Hagrid was to be believed - into a bag that the goblin has helpfully provided him with. And one fun ride on the 'infernal cart' later, he and his overly-large guide were back to the bank's atrium.

"Alright, Harry." The Hogwarts gamekeeper said. "Why don't we get yer uniform first? I remember those takin' a lot of time to get right." Of course, it could've been simply because there were none pre-made in Hagrid's size, but Harry decided not to point that out. "Also." The half-giant continued. "Would yeh mind if I slipped off fer a pick-me-up in the Leaky Cauldron? I hate them, Gringotts carts." Indeed, he looked a bit sick. The young Potter merely shrugged in response: he did not care about having any company and would rather do things alone. Still, he decided to follow the man's advice and get his uniform first. If only to avoid going through the annoying process of trying things on later, when his self-control would be far more worn out by his exposure the noisy crowds of Diagon Alley.

Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions was a rather large shop situated pretty much across the street from Gringotts. For a supposedly prominent store, though, there weren't many customers. In fact, aside from Harry himself, right now there was only a couple of old wizards browsing through the selection of formal robes… And, yes, this shop was selling mostly robes. Sure, there were some hats and cloaks there, but that was it. Which didn't sit all that well with the Eclipse Driver as, in his opinion, the robes looked neither cool nor comfortable. His further thoughts on the matter were interrupted by a salesperson, presumably Madam Malkin herself.

"Hogwarts, dear?" A squat, smiling witch dressed all in mauve asked him. Biting back an offensive response - he was not some 'dear' - Harry nodded. And, before he could say anything else, he found himself on a stool at the back of the shop as the witch slipped a long robe over his head, and began to pin it to the right length. He didn't enjoy this process in the slightest and it took every bit of his slowly dwindling self-control to not lash out at the woman for violating his personal space so casually. Thankfully, this 'torture' lasted only for a few minutes. After that, the witch announced that she now had all the info she needed to start working on his set of robes. Which, according to what she said, will be ready in just a couple of hours. Giving her a brief node in response, he fled the shop as fast as he could without losing an ounce of dignity.

Once outdoors, he paused, thinking about which shop he should go to next. And, remembering what Zero has explained him about the devices and how they were quite an important and very useful tool for spell casting, he decided that he should probably get his wand next. Thus, he made his way towards Ollivanders' - apparently, the only shop selling wands in the Diagon Alley. It was occupying a narrow and shabby building with dusty windows and peeling paint on the old signboard. This shop certainly didn't look like it was a thriving business to the young Potter. Still, he needed a wand, and this was the place that sold them, so Harry stepped inside, causing a tinkling bell to ring somewhere in the depths of the shop.

"Hello?" He asked as he couldn't see the salesperson anywhere within this tiny shop. As no one answered him, the green-eyed youth turned his attention towards the thousands upon thousands of nigh-identical, narrow boxes piled neatly right up to the ceiling. And each of them definitely a wand inside… Suddenly, the Eclipse Driver felt something - or someone - move behind him. This instantly made him forget everything about the wands as all thoughts not pertaining to dealing with that sneaky bastard got purged from his mind.

Doing his best not to alert the mysterious person that he knew about them attempting to creep up on him, Harry drew upon his mana, directing it to flow through his body in order to make it as strong and as fast as it possibly could be. Once done, he immediately sprung to action. In a blink of an eye he had his knife out and in his hands. Another moment passed, and he was already lashing against whoever was trying to sneak up on him with a powerful, lightning-fast attack. Yet, despite its impressive speed, this attack hit nothing but air as the presence reappeared behind him.

"Quite the reactions you have Mr. Potter, quite the reactions indeed." An old man spoke, actually sounding amused rather scared. Immediately Harry whipped straight back around to find an elderly wizard leaning against the counter with merriment clear in his silver eyes, something that made his blood boil for whatever reason. He gave no response to the man, save for an angry glare, prompting him to chuckle before continuing. "But I don't think that you've come all the way here to show off your skill with a knife. You're here to get your first wand, aren't you?"A cautious nod had the man smiling lightly as he walked up to Harry, a measuring tape appearing in his hands from somewhere. "Which is your wand arm?" He asked, perplexing the Eclipse Driver for a few moments.

"I'm right handed." The green-eyed youth replied, assuming (correctly) that the strange man was asking what arm was the dominant one for him. Mr. Ollivander smiled again, before asking him to hold his arm out. Then, the old wandmaker proceeded to measure pretty much anything one could think of while explaining what from his wands were made - not that Harry really cared to listen to him… Eventually, the aged wizard was done taking the measurements and disappeared towards the piles of boxes, mumbling to himself something as he picked through box after box before finally settling on one and bringing over the box to Harry.

"Here, why don't you try this one, Mr. Potter? Give it a flick." He said as he offered a short wand made from beechwood and dragon heartstring to the young Eclipse Driver. Accepting the wand, Harry waved it around a little, feeling very foolish as he did, especially since nothing at all happened. The man took away the wand and placed it back into its box, returning it to the towers of its brethren before taking another out and giving it to the boy. Another flick was given, and this time managed to get a reaction, albeit with the entire right-hand side of the store exploding, the wand immediately being snatched from his hand, before the shop fixed itself… somehow. "Nope, definitely not this one." The man said, sounding like his shop getting blown up was a perfectly normal occurrence.

Harry let out an unintelligible hum as he was given another want to try out. And, just like it was with the first one, waving it around produced absolutely no discernible results. This was quickly getting quite ridiculous, the green-eyed boy thought. Were wizarding wands really this picky about who wielded them? It was something that was really hard for him to wrap his mind around as, according to what Zero has taught him about devices and other Magical Terminals used on the Administered Worlds, even the most self-aware Intelligent Devices rarely ever refused to cooperate with their mages. And when they did, it usually was to protect either their wielder or themselves from serious, possibly life-threatening, damage.

Several more wands later Harry was nearing his breaking point. If the old man didn't have a wand suited for him, he should've just said so and let him go find someone who had one. Instead, Mr. Ollivander insisted on him continuing to try out randomly-picked wands, which always led either to wand not doing anything at all or doing something that it most certainly wasn't supposed to. The latter commonly involved an explosion of some kind.

"That's it!" Harry exploded after yet another wand refused to work for him. Without saying another word, he marched out of the shop... Too bad, Diagon Alley was still as crowded as it was before and, therefore, was not a good place for the young Potter to cool his anger off. Looking around for a spot where the people would be unlikely to bother him, he noticed a narrow street branching away from Diagon Alley that was avoided by most people. Wasting no time, Harry made his way there.

This street, Knockturn Alley, was quite a dingy place. The shops there were selling stuff like poisons, cursed artifacts, live nasty creatures and _human nails and other body parts_. Similarly, the people populating this dark alleyway were not the most amicable ones. But that didn't dissuade the green-eyed Eclipse Driver any. In fact, he actually preferred their open predatory curiosity to the fake friendliness of the wizards and witches in Diagon Alley.

As he proceeded deeper into Knockturn Alley, Harry noticed that the assortment of the shops was getting ever more sinister while the number of lowlifes of the wizarding world he came across grew. There even was some creep covered head to toe with an old and tattered cloak that eyed everyone passing by from the shadows with a barely restrained hunger. For some reason this ... _thing_ payed Harry way more attention than _it_ did to the rest of the alley's denizens. And while that was certainly making him really uncomfortable, the young Potter refused to be intimidated and did his best to stare the creep down. He was actually doing quite a good job at it until someone bumped into him...

Seeing how he was still more than a little angry from his pointless trip to Ollivander's as well as having to wade through the noisy mass of people in the Diagon Alley, the green-eyed Eclipse Driver was in no mood to be polite with whichever bastard crossed his path. Thus, he whirled towards the 'offender', a snarl fast on his lips. The man who ran into him, however, wasn't disposed for politeness himself.

"Watch where you're going, brat." He hissed, his hand inching towards the inner pocket of his robe where his wand was. Harry's only response was a hateful glare, which certainly wasn't what the disreputable man wanted to see. "You insolent son of a bitch! I was going to be nice with you and only take your money, but now I'm going to make you beg for my forgiveness!" He announced, completely certain of his superiority, as he drew his wand.

Harry wasn't about to give this bastard even a chance to hurt him, and so he attacked first, aiming to kill the man with a single quick strike. That didn't work quite as well as he'd liked it to, though: the would-be robber somehow managed to shift his body a little and the blade only gave him a deep gash across his chest instead of killing him outright. Seeing this, the young Potter continued his assault. Delivering a powerful knee strike that made the man double over, he grabbed him by his head and smashed him face-first into the Alley's causeway. And to make sure that the bastard stayed down, he plunged his knife into the back of his neck, most definitely severing his spine.

Wrenching his blade out of the now-dead body, Harry felt the red mist of Eclipse-induced anger leave his mind while the elation of a kill was rapidly improving his mood. Faintly he noticed that everyone else, except for the strange person, was looking at him differently and trying to not catch his attention, the figure instead focusing solely on him, or maybe the corpse at his feet.

Quickly and with a not quite practiced hand, Harry rummaged through the corpse's clothing, looking for anything of a value. What he found were the man's wand and a few coins, as well as a few trinkets of a questionable worth. Pocketing all that, he stood back up and resumed his journey through Knockturn Alley, his Combat Protective Clothing altering itself to get rid of the blood that got splattered onto it. Unfortunately he couldn't get rid of the blood on his hands just as easily and had to resort to wiping them against his pants.

A few seconds later he heard some strange activity taking place behind him. Glancing back, he saw the mysterious cloaked figure from before dragging the corpse into the shadows while looking like a man about to have a feast. Harry's only response to that was a shrug: the fate of the bastard's body was of no concern to him.

Having walked down the Knockturn Alley for a little bit longer, Harry came across a small and a bit misshapen building with a sign reading 'Oscar's Wands' hanging above its entrance. An array of wands of various lengths, materials and styles on the window case confirmed that this indeed was a store that sold wands. Hoping that he would have better luck there than he did back at Ollivanders', the young Potter entered the shop.

"You here for a wand, kid?" The owner of the store 'greeted' in a rather bored tone. He said next while nodding towards several large baskets to the side from his counter. "Go pick one that suites you the best. Most of them are secondhand, but they are all in good condition and only a few of them are still tracked by the Ministry." Harry managed a few steps towards the aforementioned baskets when the shop owner spoke up again. "Oi, kid, if you don't want to pay for the wand you already own the second time, I suggest you let me put a marker on it."

"Ah… This one isn't mine; took it from some idiot in the alley." The green-eyed Eclipse Driver replied a bit evasively. The shop owner raised his eyebrow upon hearing that but didn't pry any further. He didn't even appear to be all that bothered by the fact that the brat in front of him has just admitted to stealing a wand, perhaps even as a part of his assault on someone: his shop had some of the best anti-theft wards available, and this kid, even if he had Devil's luck, should have no way of circumventing those. Plus, he himself was no slouch when it came to magical combat - being good with a wand was practically a requirement for running a successful shop in this hellhole.

"Then why don't you sell it to me? I'll give you a discount for a wand you'll purchase." There was no way he was going to tell the brat to try it first - he needed to make money and if that wand was a match, the boy would just walk out without leaving a single galleon to fill his cashbox.

"Alright." Harry agreed as the offered deal sounded quite nice. "Here." He said as he walked up to the counter and handed his trophy over to the shop owner. The man wasted no time and began examining it right away.

"Quite dirty and there is a couple of jags on it, but, overall, it is in a decent condition, especially for something of its age." He mumbled, mostly to himself, as he inspected the wand. "Ten and a half inches, quite springy… Birch and Kelpie hair for the core, if I'm not mistaken… Not a very powerful combination for a wand, but it makes one predictable and easy to master." After making a small pause, he addressed the young Potter: "Yes, I'll take this one. I'm willing to give you one galleon, four sickles and nine knuts for it." Quickly counting the money he was promised up, Harry noticed that it was only a quarter of the price the wands in this shop were sold at.

"But you'll sell it for five!" He pointed out accusingly. The shop owner - Oscar? - shrugged.

"That's business, kid. If I buy it for as much I will sell it for, I'll be left with no galleons to live off." Harry grumbled discontentedly but, nevertheless, accepted this. "Now then, why don't you go find a wand that suits you?" The man prompted. The green-eyed Eclipse Driver nodded in response and made his way to the baskets full of (mostly slightly used) wands. Though, without any idea on how to find a wand that works best for him, he just tried random ones in hopes that one of them will do something that will clearly identify it as being the right one for him.

The first few wands he tried behaved much like the from Mr. Ollivander's shop: they either did nothing at all or had some sort of a violent reaction when he gave them a flick. Then, at long last, Harry finally found the wand that seemed to work for him - it produced a stream of somewhat-faint purplish lights when he brandished it like a rapier towards an empty corner of the store.

"This one seems to like you." The shop owner commented from his spot behind the counter. "Come here, let's see what it is." Nodding, the Eclipse Driver walked up to him and handed the wand over. "Hm… Pine and dragon heartstring. Eleven and a half inches, reasonably supple. A warrior's wand if I've ever seen one."

"O-okay." The Potter scion breathed out, not really sure what to think about this revelation. Out of all wands out there, the one he was compatible with turned out to be the one geared towards combat…

"That would be three galleons, twelve sickles and twenty knuts, the discount included." The shop owner said next, bringing Harry back to the reality. Handing over the required amount of money, he expected to be given his wand immediately after, instead the man took the money and pulled out his own wand and ran it over the one he just paid for. He grew a little annoyed at that before the man replied to his unasked question, "Standard procedure kid, have to remove the trigger charm or the wards won't let you leave. I don't think you want that.." That managed to quell the little anger gathering a few moment before the man handed Harry his new wand, waving him out the door and out into the alley.

Placing his new wand into a secure pocket, the young Potter stopped to think where he should go next. There still were many things he needed to buy for Hogwarts, and quite a few of those didn't appear to have any shops in Knockturn Alley selling them. Indeed, most of shops here were geared towards selling the goods schoolchildren had no business dealing with. There however was one junk shop near the exit to Diagon Alley that, Harry was sure, sold slightly-used cauldrons and other miscellaneous equipment from his list. And that was where he headed to next.

His journey there was rather uneventful as the dwellers of the alley were doing their best to stay out of his way. Apparently, him doing in that bastard left quite an impression on the local population… which suited him just fine as it let him to move around the alley without any other incidents. As Harry got closer to his destination, the distant sounds of bustling crowds in Diagon Alley began reaching his ears. At the moment those didn't bother him all that much as the elation from his recent kill had loosened the grip the Eclipse Factor had on his emotions and his mind, but he had no idea how long this period of lucidity would last, so he hastened inside the store, wishing to finish his business there as fast as possible.

The junk shop, unfortunately, didn't equal Harry's hopes as much as he would've liked it to. A number of things from his list were indeed sold there, but only so many items were in a good enough condition for him to buy them. In the end, he only got himself brass scales and a set of crystal vials for potions, as well as a set of textbooks there. For everything else he'd have to shop in the Diagon Alley, as much as he disliked that place and its crowds...

Letting out a sigh, the young Potter stepped out of the comforting tranquility of the Knockturn Alley and into the bustling crowds of the magical Britain's main shopping district. And, even with his Eclipse Factor being sated for the time being, navigating through the crowds was a real chore as his hands were now full of the goods he has bought. He needed a trunk or a bag or something like that to help him carry his stuff. And so he started looking for a shop that sold those. Finding one wasn't even that hard; the Gerald's Quality Trunks shop had a very easy to notice sign. Just as he was about to enter it, however, the green-eyed youth ran into Hagrid, who, apparently, was looking for him.

"Where have yeh been, Harry? I've been looking for yeh everywhere." The Hogwarts gamekeeper asked.

"Shopping." Harry replied a bit evasively while nodding towards the goods he had in his hands. The half-giant didn't appear to believe that it was all that happened and eyed the young Eclipse Driver fixedly. After a few tense moments later, though, he decided that everything was fine and reverted back to his usual friendly self.

"Thank Merlin, Harry! I was so worried when I couldn't find yeh anywhere." There was a bit of a pause, before the half-giant continued. "Also, I went to Ollivander's and he said that yeh were there and left without buying a wand. Yeh know, yeh can't go to Hogwarts without one?"

"I got one from a different shop later." The young Potter replied, while showing his 'guide' the wand he bought in the Knockturn Alley. Hagrid stared it at for a few moments, as if trying to remember whether there were any other shops that sold wands in London, before shrugging.

"A'ight then." He said. "Were yeh going to buy a trunk next?" Upon Harry's nod, he continued while opening the store's door for him: "Let's get yeh one then."

* * *

Some ten minutes later, and Harry was a happy owner of a sturdy trunk. And while it was nothing more than what was necessary for him to store his things at Hogwarts, few as they were, it still was a very good trunk. Shortly after he and Hagrid continued to the next store, an apothecary, to buy the cauldron and potion supplies, the aroma of the ingredients were… not pleasant. Obtaining a telescope was quickly done, while the parchment, ink and quills, why those were even being used he had no idea, took a bit longer. Finally after… two and a half hours he guessed, his shopping trip was finished with a final stop to pick up his robes from Madam Malkin's. With that done, they headed towards the exit from the alley...

"Oh." The half-giant exclaimed as he suddenly stopped just as the two of them passed through the brick archway that separated Diagon Alley from the Leaky Cauldron. "Almost forgot that I have to give yeh this, Harry." He said then while reaching into his overcoat. A few moments later he pulled out a thin envelope of brown paper and handed it over. "Here, take it." Nodding, the young Potter accepted the envelope and, wasting no time, opened it to sate his curiosity about its contents. Which turned out to be a pair of train tickets.

"Hogwarts Express..." The green-eyed Eclipse Driver read from one of those tickets. "Platform 9 ¾? Is that some hidden place the magicals… wizards have created or something?" He asked then, noticing the platform from which the train will be departing. Indeed, while he has never been to Kings Cross, he was still pretty sure that the 'normal' platforms there were numbered with natural numbers only.

"Yeah." Hagrid confirmed. "It's a hidden platform no muggle can accidentally wander onto. To get there, yeh will need to go through the wall of the divider between the platforms nine and ten." The Hogwarts gamekeeper tried to explain, though that didn't seem to help Harry all that much.

"Go through the wall? Is that some spell we're supposed to learn on our own?" He asked.

"No, no, nothing like that." Hagrid quickly amended.

「 _What this man is probably trying to say is that the platform 9 ¾ exists in a separate dimensional fold and can be accessed via a portal that is installed into the divider between platforms 9 and 10. This portal is likely made to activate only for those with active Linker Cores to prevent the non-mages from accessing the platform 9 ¾._ 」 Zero supplied helpfully.

"There is a… hidden pathway that only wizards and witches can use in that divider." The demi-giant continued. "I don't really know how it works, but yeh just walk into the divider and it will transport yeh to the platform; and if any muggle tried to follow you, they'll find nothing but a solid wall there." He said, confirming Zero's guess.

"Alright." Harry said, returning the tickets into the envelope, which he then put into his trunk. "And, by the way..." The green-eyed youth spoke up as the two of them made their way to the 'London' entrance of the Leaky Cauldron. "There is no need for you to escort me back to Little Whinging, Hagrid. I can get back home on my own just fine."

"Are yeh sure about that, Harry?" The Hogwarts gamekeeper asked, just as the they stepped out of the pub and into the busy street of Charrington Cross. He received a nod in response. "Well… If yeh are sure about that, Harry." The young Potter nodded again. "Alright. See you in Hogwarts then, I guess." The half-giant said next.

"Ah… Yeah… See you there..." The green-eyed Eclipse Driver returned the goodbye awkwardly, which brought an amused expression on Hagrid's face. Feeling a spark of anger shoot through him because of that, Harry quickly turned around and started walking away, all the while doing his best not to attract too much attention to his unusual luggage from the the passersby.

* * *

That's all, folks!  
 **Read** and **Review**!


	5. Journey to the North

The fifth chapter of the " ** _Power of Eclipse_** " story is here for your enjoyment, folks!

 *** Review Response**:  
 **VentXekart** , yeah, the troll will be going down hard this time around. As for the defenses around the Philosopher's Stone... who knows... And, yes, MGLN characters will be appearing in this story. How soon?.. Can't say in chapters, but Harry will travel to Mid-Childa during the summer after his first year at Hogwarts. Oh, and it's year 0073 Mid-Childan calendar right now.  
 **Ranmaleopard** , **The Ultimate Balance Chaos** , **ultima-owner** , **Duel** , thank you for your reviews, folks!  
 **wahyubison** , that meant that Harry might eventually find a girl whom he live together with and... court her? Marry her? As for which house Harry will be sorted into, well,.. I'm sure you'll find out soon enough (not in this chapter, though).  
 **shadowchaos5150** , to be completely honest, I haven't decided which side of his family Harry get **_the heritage_** from. But it will likely be his mother's.

* * *

 **Disclaimer** : " ** _Harry Potter_** " and " _ **Mahou Shoujou Lyrical Nanoha**_ " belong to their respective owners. No profit is being made. The same goes for any other media that might be used as the sources of ideas and inspiration.

"speaking"  
" _telepathy_ "  
「 _Devices speaking_ 」  
' _thinking_ '  
" **spells** "

Additional **Disclaimer** : The authors of this story **in no way approve** murder as a solution to interpersonal conflicts.

* * *

 **Power of Eclipse  
Chapter ****V:** **Journey to the North**

Harry spent the rest of his summer learning to control and use his magical powers, be they Eclipse, Belkan or wizarding in nature. And, completely unsurprisingly, the Eclipse Magic the easiest for him to work with. That, however, didn't mean that he somehow learned a ton of uber-cool spells that let him summon all-destroying beams of divine wrath. He was still light-years away from being able to do that, but that didn't mean his progress wasn't noticeable.

Over these six weeks he managed to considerably improve his control over the powers the Eclipse Factor granted him, and Zero finally deemed him ready to start working on some 'real' spells. Thus, she taught him the ' **Chain Bind** ', a spell that summoned a number of transmuted chains to immobilize and bind the target. And, while he was still far away from truly mastering this piece of magic, Harry managed to make some nice progress with it.

Another cool ability he started learning was **Flight**. It didn't come as easy to him, but by the end of the summer, the green-eyed youth could successfully levitate himself off the ground and even move around in straight lines. Anything beyond that, however, was too hard for him right now. He wasn't greatly discouraged by that, though, as, according to Zero, most mages on the Administered Worlds struggled to get even this far. And speaking of the Magics more common in those lands...

His attempts to learn some Belkan Magic weren't going nearly as well. Some of Harry's problems with it could be attributed to the fact that he was learning everything through trial and error here as Zero didn't know any actual Belkan spells and only possessed some general knowledge on how those were supposed to work, but for the most part it was his nature of an Eclipse Driver that made it so difficult for him. Indeed, to be able to use anything other than Eclipse spells he needed to completely suppress his anti-magic aura, and that still took nearly all of his concentration to pull off.

As for the wizarding magic… Well, Harry's progress there was the slowest. Much of the difficulties he was having could be, once again, attributed to the Eclipse Factor and its anti-magic aura, but the oddness of the wizarding spells 'contributed' a lot as well. Indeed, the way the spell matrices were apparently constructed from a few words and some random wand movements completely defied logic. That wasn't how the spells were supposed to work! And his lack of accomplishments supported this. He had failed to light up the tip of his wand way more times than he cared to count, and even when he did cast the spell successfully, it was very weak and died out the moment he focused on anything other than maintaining it and suppressing the Eclipse Factor.

Constant failures like that, of course, took their toll, and Harry often got frustrated to the point where he would stop trying to get his wizarding spells to work for awhile, either shifting his focus to the magics that made sense, or simply going out and doing something ...productive. Still, by the end of the summer he somehow managed to get the light charm to work, even if it produced only a tiny light that flickered occasionally and was far too easy to extinguish. So, perhaps, charms weren't entirely out of his reach. Unlike transfiguration magic. Transfiguration was what he struggled the most with and, so far, he hasn't succeeded even once in inflicting any sort of change on a few pebbles he was experimenting on.

And as the end of the summer drew close, Harry once again began wondering whether accepting the invitation to Hogwarts was actually a good idea. On one hand, it promised him a nice place to stay for nine months a year and as much food as he wanted, so ignoring that would be stupid… On the other hand, though, it was a school, a place of forced socialization. And he knew that even without all the frustration that the wizarding magic was causing him, it was only a matter of time before he snapped and started killing people there.

After some more thinking about that, though, Harry decided that he was worrying too much and the things wouldn't be so bad after all. Indeed, based on what he managed to learn from Hagrid, Hogwarts was surrounded by ancient, magical forest full of unbeknown beasts. And quite a few of those beasts probably were rather dangerous and eager to feast on fresh human meat. So, perhaps, he could go fight those things whenever the Eclipse-induced madness was about to take over and turn him into a mindless berserker? At the very least, Zero believed that his bloodlust could be sated by killing an opponent in a fight, regardless of that opponent being a human or something else… And if fighting beasts to keep the Eclipse Factor in check didn't work, he always had an option to run away from Hogwarts and return to his 'normal' life.

With that in mind, Harry reassured himself that no, agreeing to attend this wizarding school wasn't a mistake, even if he wouldn't have an easy time there, thanks to the Eclipse Factor and everything that came with it.

/ **~ *** \~**

Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, let out a tired sigh as he looked up from the pile of documents on his table. It was always hard for him to concentrate on the boring paperwork when the excitement of the new academic year was in the air, and, indeed, tomorrow the castle would be once again full of children, all of them eager to learn Magic.

Even more importantly, tomorrow was the day when Harry Potter came to Hogwarts. And, the elderly warlock was a bit worried about how that might go as, based on what Hagrid has reported to him, the boy was notably different from what the people expected him to be. For one, it appeared that he wasn't staying with his aunt and uncle and, instead, was effectively homeless and living on his own. It greatly saddened Albus as it meant that Harry grew up not knowing the joys of a loving family. That, and it also meant that the Blood Wards he had placed around #4, Privet Drive didn't exist anymore and, therefor, the last of Potters no longer had a safe haven where he was protected from the evils of the magical world.

Then there was Harry himself. According to Hagrid, and Dumbledore trusted the man completely there, he wasn't like other children his age. The gamekeeper couldn't describe exactly why he thought like that, but he made it clear that something about the young Potter just felt ...wrong.

And then there was that little incident in Gringotts. The Hogwarts headmaster couldn't remember any other time when the goblins admitted their archives to be wrong about anything that dealt with the wizarding bloodlines. Yet, somehow, their sample of Harry's blood and magic turned out to be a little off. That was quite worrying as he could think of only so many things in the world that could have caused that, and none that weren't the dark magic applied in this case.

Dumbledore's bones creaked quietly as he got up from his desk and made his way around it, worrying about how Harry was wouldn't do anyone any good, and there still were quite a few things that needed to be done before the students arrived for the year. But before that, it would be wise to speak to Severus about Harry's… issues. It would be awful if he caused some accident because he saw James more than Lily in the boy. And while he was at it, he probably should speak with the rest of the staff as well. Or, those that would be teaching Harry this year at the very least..

Letting out a tired sigh he left his office and began the descent down his stairwell, he could only hope the boy would fit in with his peers and find magic fun and exciting… Harry had been through enough already, and ensuring that he was able to enjoy his school years was the least he could do for him.

 **~/ *** \~**

Even though the Hogwarts Express didn't depart until eleven in the morning, Harry left his humble abode almost with the sunrise. True, this would have him going insane with boredom as he waited for his train at the Kings Cross and he certainly wasn't looking forward to it, but the alternative of braving the London crowds during a rush hour was even worse. And that was before the risk of him losing it and slaughtering the random people of the streets was taken into the account.

The first leg of his journey to the King's Cross was rather peaceful and uneventful as most of the people living in rural areas like Little Whinging were just waking up and so the train Harry took wasn't at all crowded. Too bad, his luck didn't hold once he arrived to London: apparently, a megalopolis was a busy place at any hour. The crowded streets were a test of his self-control even on the better of the days, and now that he had to lug his trunk with him, it got even worse… Yet, somehow, the young Potter managed to make it to the Kings Cross without turning into a raging berserker.

Now, where was that entrance to the platform 9 ¾ again? Hagrid said that he just needed to walk into a wall of a divider between platforms 9 and 10, but… There were three divider. Immediately, Harry felt a strong wave of anger rush through his being, but he did his best to suppress it. Still, how was he going to find the right place without looking like an idiot and attracting the bothersome attention to himself?

「 _There is a portal gateway with an overlaid illusion over it on the central divider between the platforms. It is on the side facing us._ 」 Zero, who, apparently, could sense magic nearby even when merged with her Driver, informed him. Thanking his ever-helpful ...Reactor Plug telepathically, Harry headed towards the spot she said the entrance to the platform 9 ¾ was at. And, indeed, while the illusion prevented him from seeing the actual gateway to the magical part of the Kings Cross, when he placed his hand onto the 'bricks', it actually phased through what should have been a solid wall.

Smirking, the green-eyed youth picked his trunk up and, once the crowd disembarking from the recently-arrived train hid him from the view, slipped into the hidden portal. A world around him blurred for a few moments, before reforming into the image of the platform 9 ¾. It didn't look all that different from the muggle ones, except for the fact that it was all but completely empty. There was no train there yet, and the only people the green-eyed Eclipse Driver could see was a couple of guards wearing funny crimson robes.

Looking up at the clock, Harry noted that he still had a little more than two hours before the Hogwarts Express' departure. A long wait, sure, but it certainly beat the alternative, which was braving the rush hour crowds, so he didn't mind it all that much. Especially since it gave him some time to learn more about Magic from Zero. " _Hey, Zero, do you have an idea how this… place exists? I mean, you can't really hide a whole platform inside a small brick wall._ "

「 _It appears that the platform we're currently on exists in a stable pocket dimension that has at least two entry points. The gateway you've just walked through is one, while the other is for the trains. It is quite possible that there are other entrances to this place, but those can't be detected at this moment._ 」 Harry gave a nod of understanding as this made sense. Or as much sense as it could with the Wizarding Magic seemingly following no logic but its own twisted one. 「 _It is very likely that this pocket dimension exists where you think it should be, but it might not be so. It may exist quite some distance away from the non-magical side of this railway station, and you won't be able to notice that as distance has little meaning when travelling through portals._ 」

" _That sounds very cool_." Harry noted: even if limited by pre-existent gateways, nigh-instantaneous travel between faraway location was something many dreamed about. And, speaking of faraway places, he still wanted to visit Mid-Childa or, at least, some other Administered World. Those sounded as much better places to live than an abandoned factory here on Earth and, more importantly, that TSAB organization might be able to help him reign in the nastier aspects of the Eclipse Factor. " _And speaking of long-distance magical travel… Are you sure that we can't reach any of the Administered Worlds via that_ _ **Dimensional Transfer**_ _spell of yours, Zero?_ " He asked then.

「 _This unit has answered this question multiple times already._ 」 The Strosek-girl replied, her voice somehow as flat as always. 「 _Neither this unit nor you yourself possess enough mana to ensure a safe jump to the nearest known habitable world, much less one that is actually inhabited._ 」 Yes, this was exactly what she's told him the last time he brought this topic up, but Harry refused to believe that there really was no way for him to reach the TSAB-operated worlds. No, there had to be a way… Then, suddenly, an idea occurred to him.

" _Well,.. If all that we need is mana, then we just have to get more somehow..._ " Something that, admittedly, was easier said than done as Linker Cores stopped producing more magical energy once the person's natural limit was reached. " _Haven't you said that Belkan mages of old times had some way to store their mana in objects and then take it back for a short power boosts?_ "

「 _The cartridge system. This unit has no knowledge on how it can be built._ 」 Zero replied, causing her Driver to fur his brows as he tried his best to think up a way to get around this unfortunate development. Indeed, now that he knew a way to make the **Dimensional Transfer** spell usable existed, he wasn't giving up on it easily.

" _Are you sure there is nothing at all we can do?_ " He asked. " _Even if you don't have a ready recipe to make these cartridges, there still might be something - anything - that would help us… uhm… rediscover the way they are made._ " There was quite a bit of silence, before Zero spoke up again.

「 _All this unit can say is that certain materials are well-suited for containing and transferring magical energies. However, to make best use of such materials, additional implements to regulate mana flow are necessary. No knowledge on the ways to create them exist in this unit's databases._ 」Harry let out a sigh. It looked like Zero really knew next to nothing about the way these cartridges were manufactured, but, at least, he now had a few bits of actually useful information to work with.

" _So… If we gather a bit of those materials, we can experiment a bit and try to rig up something that actually works, right?_ " He asked next. Upon receiving a telepathic equivalent of a nod from the Strosek-girl, the young Potter proceeded to bombard her with questions about what those materials were, how he could identify or produce them and so on… Until he was so absorbed in this telepathic dialogue that he completely lost the track of time. At least until a sudden shrill whistle brought him back to reality.

Looking around for the source of that annoying sound, he quickly noticed a steam engine backing up into the station. It was a large, bright red locomotive with a long dozen of passenger cars attached. A second whistle had him covering his ears to mitigate the horrid noise while his face took a 'pained' expression… this would be a problem in the future. Meanwhile, the locomotive hissed steam as it came to a stop. For about a minute nothing happened; then the doors opened with another low hiss, immediately having him gather his things and make his way onto the train.

Immediately upon boarding Harry made his way to the very back of the train, passing by a surprised lady tending to a cart that presumably held the snacks that would be sold on the trip to Hogwarts, and made his way into the second compartment. He highly doubted that anyone would disturb him there as there were so many other compartments available, probably more than enough to fit Hogwarts' entire student body twice over if what he managed to study out during his shopping in the Diagon Alley was true. Plus, even if someone actually decided to settle in this car, they were more likely to pick the very last compartment instead of the one he was now occupying. Done with that train of thoughts, he put his luggage away and settled down on a surprising-comfortable seat, going right back to his discussion of the Belkan Cartridge System with Zero as he awaited the train's distant departure.

For a while Harry enjoyed some peace and quiet in the compartment he now occupied: the few Hogwarts students that did arrive to the Kings Cross so early all ignored the last cars of the train and went for the 'better' spots near its middle instead. As the Express' departure time drew close, though, more and more people arrived, many of them getting on the train via the last car. Thankfully for the young Eclipse Driver, none of them thought that he was a good companion and all of them took seats elsewhere…

Yet another wretched whistle blasted his ears with its shrill noise, immediately startling out of his thoughts again as well as making him cover his ears from the sudden noise. A few seconds later, the people that were previously chatting amiably with their folks on the platform all rushed back aboard the train, afraid that it will leave without them. And hearing this throng trample just the other side of his compartment's door made Harry feel quite uneasy. At least, his trusted knife was there to provide him with a measure of comfort...

Suddenly there was a quiet 'click' and the door of his compartment slid open as some fool decided that the other seats in there were up for grabs. Which they most definitely weren't as the green-eyed Eclipse Driver knew he wouldn't be able to tolerate any companions on this train ride: his sanity simply won't survive if he got stuck in such an enclosed space with some noisy kid... And so he directed his strongest glare at whoever dared to disturb him. Said person turned out to be a thin bespectacled ...boy - at least he thought this was a boy - that appeared to be a couple years older than him.

There was a long moment of silence as this boy stared at Harry and the knife he had in his hands. Then he let out quiet yelp as he hurried away from the 'scary guy', continuously apologizing as he dragged his oversized suitcase behind him… Letting out a deep sigh, the young Potter stood up from his spot and slammed his compartment's door shut. Hopefully, he thought, he would now have his peace and quiet again.

* * *

Ronald Billius Weasley was a man on a mission: find Harry Potter and get him to autograph something. He, however, wasn't doing it for himself; he was doing it because he wanted to make his sister, Ginny, happy - she was so devastated by the fact that she had to wait for another year before she could go to Hogwarts and meet her idol that she almost broke into tears right there, on the platform.

Unfortunately, the Boy-Who-Lived continued to be as elusive now as he has been for the past ten years. Ron checked the prestigious front cars of the train, which were normally reserved for the prefects and teachers, first, but the scion of house Potter wasn't there. He wasn't hiding anywhere in the middle cars either… And, truth to be said, Ron wasn't as eager to meet him right now anymore - fifteen minutes of fruitless searching had kind of cooled his enthusiasm. Plus, it wasn't like he would have a chance to send Ginny an owl until after the Welcoming Feast; he'd have many opportunities to get the autographs his beloved sister wanted till then. Still, he was a Gryffindor - well, he will be one in a few hours - and Gryffindors don't give up. Thus, he continued his searches.

As he continued down the train, he came across a compartment with a few older Hufflepuffs becalming a very scared boy who, apparently, was one of their own. Deciding that whatever caused this was none of his problems, the youngest Weasley boy instead asked:

"Hey, guys, have you seen Harry Potter anywhere around here?" One of the 'Puffs looked up at him and shook his head. Shrugging at this unhelpful 'answer', Ron then said while nodding towards the train tail. "Alright then, gonna see if anyone there seen him." Just as he was about to leave the compartment, the scared boy spoke up:

"No! D-don't go there!" He almost pleaded. "There's a crazy b-back there, carrying a knife and looking angry at everyth-thing! Go there and he'll try to k-kill you!" This sounded hard to believe, and, apparently, Ron's thoughts were easy enough to read at this moment. "I t-tell the truth!" The boy exclaimed. "There r-really is some crazy guy o-out there!" And while he still found it extremely hard to believe that the auror guards would let someone like that on the train, the Weasley boy decided that this was a convenient excuse for him to abandon his search for the moment: after all, he wouldn't be able to make Ginny happy if he got hurt by some mad lunatic that, supposedly, haunted the last cars of the train.

"Alright, alright." He tried to placate the distraught older boy. "I'll make sure to steer clear of anyone with a knife." And with those words he left the Hufflepuffs' compartment. Instead of continuing down the train, however, he headed towards where his brothers and Lee were supposed to be.

* * *

Harry just managed to get comfortable again and cool off a little after the earlier events when some rude bastard decided to disturb him again. The door of his compartment was flung open, revealing a group a of three boys:, two quiet, rather heavy-set young lads flanking a pompous-acting near white-haired idiot that, evidently, was the one who opened the door. The apparent leader of this little gang looked around the compartment, seemingly surprised to see that there was no one else in there, before focusing his attention on him, studying him for ...something. This alone was enough to make the young Eclipse Driver struggle to keep his rage under control, and the little bastard hasn't even opened his mouth yet. Great, just fucking great.

"I've heard that Harry Potter was on the train." The pompous git spoke in a voice full of arrogance, seemingly oblivious to the death glare leveled at him. "You are him, aren't you? Well… I must say I am pleasantly surprised that you know better than to associate yourself with mudbloods and blood-traitors. Perhaps, there is some hope left for you yet."

"Get lost." Was all of the response Harry deigned to give him. And that was enough to set the blondie off:

"H-How dare you?! Do you know who I am, plebeian?! Do you who my father is?! I'm Draco of the Noble house of Malfoy and…" The blondie was about to start on a long and winded rant about how great his pure blood was, but he quickly was cut short by the dark-haired youth's forceful words:

"Whatever. Now get lost or I'll make you disappear." And while this Draco-brat seemed to be rather cowed by the intimidating aura Harry was projecting at him, his arrogance was too great to just let him do as said and flee to save his ass.

"Crabbe, G-Goyle, I think Potter needs a lesson on w-who holds the power here. Shall we teach him that lesson?" Said pair of boys cracked their large knuckles in a totally unsubtle attempt to threaten the Brat-Who-Lived', his response was to turn his glare towards the duo and show them his fist, the purple Eclipse markings covering quite a bit of his skin there. Crabbe and Goyle were about to laugh at him as they certainly didn't see his smaller fist as something threatening. That quickly changed when Harry began deliberately-slowly shaping his mana into a set of long 'metallic' claws, just like the ones wielded by a strange guy in a yellow-and-blue jumpsuit from Dudley's comic books.

"I said _**get lost**_." He hissed dangerously at the Malfoy's goons as he pointed his new - and quite useless, but they didn't know that - 'weapon' in their direction… Turns out, the duo was smarter than their looks suggested as they quickly decided that the wisest course of action they could take right now was fleeing. Their 'boss', however, remained standing where he was, seemingly shocked stupid by what has just happened. Letting out an annoyed sigh, Harry got to his feet and stepped in front of the blond boy, bringing the 'claws' dangerously close to his eyes. "Care to lose your head, Malfoy?" That seemed to finally snap Mr. Arrogant out of his stupor: jerking back, he let out a girlish scream and ran for the hills.

Waiting till the blondie disappeared from his sight, the young Potter dismissed his claws and slammed the compartment's door shut, loudly enough that the people in the next car probably heard it. Letting out another sigh, he returned to his seat while doing his best to get his emotions and the Eclipse Factor back under his control. Why did everything have to be so maddening? It was like the world decided to be especially hateful towards him today…

Meanwhile, the young Mr. Malfoy and his two 'bodyguards' were doing their best to get as far away from that _scary place_ as they could. In other words, they were running like there was a brace of hell-hounds chasing after them... Unfortunately for them, they didn't manage to get all that far away from the Potter's compartment before they literally ran into a prefect that was patrolling the train and drew her ire.

"No running in corridors." The older girl snapped at them. "Be thankful that you haven't been sorted yet, or your unbecoming behavior would've lost your house quite a few points. Even the Weasley twins know better than to break rules before the year even begins." Being told off for, what he thought, no good reason instantly made Draco's face turn pink with anger.

"B-but the Potter is insane! He is g-going to kill us all!" He blurted off, believing that this would instantly convert the no-name girl to his side. After all, he was a Malfoy; lesser wizards and witches were supposed to be honored to serve him! His expectations were cruelly dashed when the prefect looked at him like he was the one who has lost his touch with the reality.

"Potter trying to kill you? Really?" She asked, her tone making her disbelief as clear as a day. "Are you going to tell me that Dumbledore is secretly an evil Dark Lord who brainwashes people with candies next, Malfoy?" Draco was about to retort that the aforementioned wizard was an old fool who was going to destroy the Magical World with his pro-muggle politics, but quickly caught himself and kept his mouth shut: badmouthing the headmaster wasn't going to help him any right now. "This has gone too far, Malfoy. Once you're sorted, I'm reporting you for unbecoming behavior and slander of your classmates to whoever ends up as your head of the house."

"B-but!.." The blonde tried to defend himself. The prefect wasn't impressed at all.

"But nothing, Malfoy. This isn't your family's manor; Hogwarts rules apply to all student, and you better learn this quickly. Now get out of my sight." She commanded. Gritting his teeth in frustration and anger, Draco nevertheless did as told and dejectedly headed back towards 'his' compartment, Crabbe and Goyle flanking him as they usually did.

* * *

Thankfully, the rest of the trip was mostly quiet, allowing Harry to recover his self-control after nearly slipping into blind rage thanks to that blond idiot with an oversized ego. Unfortunately he was still intruded upon twice more during this time. The first time was by the same woman he'd seen earlier aboard the train pushing a trolley down the hallways, she stopped and opened his door to nicely asked if he wanted any snacks, not trusting himself to not lash out after the idiot he'd merely shook his head and she left him alone.

The second time came a little while later from a girl and boy his age, who were looking for the said boy's pet toad. Wanting nothing more than to be left alone, Harry point blank told the two of them that he hasn't seen any amphibians in his compartment and that they should leave him alone The girl, however, turned out to be too nosy and bossy and refused to back off from him peacefully. So he was forced to scare her off by drawing his trusty knife.. Why was he surrounded by idiots who couldn't understand the simple concept of leaving him the fuck alone?At the very least after that he was able to stay in peace… at least until an annoying intercom voice announcing that the train will soon be arriving to Hogsmeade and reminding the student that they should change into their uniforms before then.

* * *

That's all, folks!  
 **Read** and **Review**!


	6. Sorting

The sixth chapter of the " ** _Power of Eclipse_** " story is here for your enjoyment, folks!

 *** Review Response**:  
 **Tommy14** , yeah, thing won't be easy for Harry at Hogwarts. But he might be able to pull through.  
 **davycrockett100** , **ultima-owner** , **Locothehood** , **Ranmaleopard** , thank you for your reviews, folks!  
 **shadowchaos5150** , yes, the fact that Harry's first visit to the Administered Worlds will be a year before StrikerS was a conscious decision. And while you are right in that nothing of great importance is happening there at this time, it doesn't mean that Harry won't have any adventures (or get befriended) before Jail finally decides to attack.  
 **Duel** (guest), Harry will actually have a reason to return to his insignificant little blue home-planet after his first visit to Mid-Childa. As for the FORCE cast... it's way too early for them to appear, though one or two of them might show up in brief cameos soon enough.

* * *

 **Disclaimer** : " ** _Harry Potter_** " and " _ **Mahou Shoujou Lyrical Nanoha**_ " belong to their respective owners. No profit is being made. The same goes for any other media that might be used as the sources of ideas and inspiration.

"speaking"  
" _telepathy_ "  
「 _Devices speaking_ 」  
' _thinking_ '  
" **spells** "

Additional **Disclaimer** : The authors of this story **in no way approve** murder as a solution to interpersonal conflicts.

* * *

 **Power of Eclipse  
Chapter ****VI:** **Sorting**

Having absolutely no desire to interact with all those overly-eager students rushing to get off the train as soon as possible, Harry didn't leave his compartment the moment the Hogwarts Express stopped at the Hogsmeade railway station. And while he waited for the noise of the crowds to die down, he contemplated on whether he actually should do as instructed and leave his trunk where it was right now. It wasn't an easy decision for him to make as he didn't really trust the school's staff not to mess with his stuff, but, in the end, he came to a conclusion that dragging his trunk around would be a worse alternative. Thus, once the noise outside of his compartment died down, he finally rose from his seat and quickly made his way onto the platform.

He was greeted by the sight of the two distinct groups of students. The bigger one was made of older students that were making their way to a caravan of carriages pulled by some strange skeletal horse-like beasts with bat wings. The smaller group, meanwhile, consisted of boys and girls his age gathered around the unmistakably-huge figure of Hagrid.

"Firs' years! Firs' years over here!" The Hogwarts' gamekeeper called stentoriously. "Any more firs' years?" Apparently, the he has been doing this for awhile and managed to annoy some of the less than patient firsties with his calls.

"Everyone's been gathered here for awhile, you oaf! Stop wasting our time and lead us to the castle!" An annoyingly-arrogant and hurtful voice came the crowd. Unfortunately, as a mere gamekeeper there wasn't anything Hagrid could really do to make the students pay him more respect. That didn't mean he was completely unable to stand up for himself, though: he was still a member of the Hogwarts staff and, therefore, knew exactly how many students he was supposed to take for the boat ride.

"That's not true." The half-giant replied, remaining as polite as he usually was in spite of the insult that has been thrown his way. "We're still waiting for two more teh join us." So, he actually wasn't the last one to get of the train, Harry thought idly as he approached the crowd of his peers… Maybe a minute passed, and the final firstie - a rather chubby dark-skinned girl, who was clearly held back by someone maliciously - joined the group. "A'ight, everyone, follow me." The half-giant called before making his way off the platform and towards a dark and narrow path leading into the woods. Having no alternative, the firsties followed him, even if some of them, Harry noticed, were less than eager to go this way… "Ye' all get yer firs' sight of Hogwarts in a sec." Hagrid said loudly just as the path he was following suddenly opened onto the edge of a great black lake.

Across this lake, perched atop a high cliff, there was a grand castle with many turrets and towers. And all many hundreds of its windows were illuminated with bright golden lights. It was a truly awe-inspiring sight that left no one indifferent: the firsties were all discussing the greatness of the Hogwarts castle now, and even Harry couldn't help but admit that it indeed was some really impressive structure… Hagrid let everyone enjoy their reverie for a minute or two, before drawing attention to a fleet of small boats that was sitting in the lake's dark waters.

"No more'n four to a boat!" He said loudly, drawing the kids' attention. At once, the soon-to-be-sorted students burst into activity as they tried to get the 'best' seats for themselves. Harry, however, didn't really care where he got to sit - at least, for as long as he didn't have to share his boat with someone annoying. Thus, he waited for the hastier of his peers to take their picks, before seating himself in one of the not-yet-occupied near the rear of the 'fleet'.

He didn't get a chance to enjoy being the only passenger of his boat for long, though. Soon enough, his boat was the only one with more than a single seat empty and so it was where a pair of girls - a redhead and a skittish blonde - who'd rather ride across the lake together tried to take a seat.

"Mind if we join you?" The red-haired young lady asked. Not really feeling like talking to them, Harry merely shrugged in response and let the two of them take the seats across from him. "Thank you." The redhead mouthed just as Hagrid commanded the little fleet to start moving. "I'm Susan, and this is Hannah." She introduced herself and her friend then. The green-eyed Eclipse Driver gave a grunt of acknowledgment, but nothing else, which caused the now-named redhead to pout at coldness, before turning to chat with her friend - thankfully, quietly enough not to cause him any annoyance…

The voyage across the Black Lake was rather uneventful, save for a giant, but rather friendly, squid coming to the surface, which gave a few of the more fearful kids a small scare. And then there was a funny moment where Hagrid turned out to be almost too big to fit into the tunnel the underground harbor the boats sailed through, which resulted in him hitting his head against the said tunnel's ceiling a few times.

And as he finally set his foot on the solid ground again, the young Potter couldn't help but notice that, even with the protection from the elements offered by the Eclipse Factor, he was still cold. And it was on a nice warm evening too. He actually shuddered at the thought that under different circumstances he might have had to endure this trip under a cold, heavy rainstorm.

"Everyone here?" Hagrid asked loudly, his voice booming throughout the cavernous chamber. He then turned his attention to a boy - Neville - who was trying hard to prevent his amphibious pet's attempts to escape. "You there, still got yer toad?" Receiving a weak nod from the boy, the Hogwarts gamekeeper walked up to a huge oak doors leading out of the chamber. He then raised his gigantic fist and knocked three times on it. Almost immediately, the door swung open, revealing a tall, black-haired witch wearing emerald-green robes. She had a very stern face and looked like someone who would be very strict about enforcing rules; not a person Harry believed he could easily get along with.

"Thank you, Hagrid. I will take them from here." The witch said to the gamekeeper, before turning her attention to the assembled students. "Follow me." Was all that she said before pulling the door she came through wide open, revealing a long passage lit with flaming torches that led upwards, to the castle proper. Without wasting another second, she started walking along the corridor, leading everyone ...somewhere. To the Hogwarts' Entrance Hall, as it turned out after a somewhat-lengthy walk, and then across this hall to a small anteroom next to a much much larger chamber from which a drone of hundreds of voices could be heard. There, the witch finally introduced herself as Minerva McGonagall, the deputy headmistress of Hogwarts and the professor of Transfiguration. She then gave a brief overview of the Hogwarts' four houses as well as of the Sorting Ceremony that would take place in a few minutes. Then she left the room, leaving the somewhat-scared, somewhat-excited firsties by themselves.

Harry, having no desire to mingle with his peers, quickly ghosted to the far corner of the room. Nevertheless, he still listened to their conversations - he was a little curious about this Sorting Ceremony thing and wanted to know what it will be like. And, he had to admit, some of the proposed ideas - like wrestling a troll, whatever that was - were rather entertaining if chimerical.

His thoughts were suddenly interrupted when several people across the room screamed without a warning. Suppressing his urge to shut them up _forcefully_ , Harry shifted his attention towards the source of the disturbance. What he saw there was a group of maybe twenty ghosts floating athwart the room. The phantoms were talking to each other and hardly paid any attention to where they were 'going', simply phasing right through any obstacles that happened to be in their way… Suddenly, one of the ghosts, the one that looked like pudgy little monk, stopped and looked around the room. Then, he smiled.

"New students!" He exclaimed joyously. "How delightful! About to be Sorted, I suppose?" Several people nodded mutely as most were still to shocked by the ghosts' appearance to actually say something in response. It looked like even some of those who were raised in the wizarding households have never met a real ghost before... "Hope to see you in Hufflepuff!" The Friar continued. "My old house, you know..." Whatever he was going to say next was interrupted by professor McGonagall's reappearance.

"The Sorting Ceremony is about to start." The stern witch announced. "Form a line and follow me." Harry, once again having no desire to participate in the jostling for 'good spots', waited for the others to arrange themselves into a not-so-perfect row, before quietly getting in the back of the line.

Professor McGonagall then led everyone to the Great Hall. And while Harry wasn't really amazed by the wizarding Magic like some of his classmates were, he had to admit that this was a majestic place: thousands of candles floating in the air by themselves looked fantastic, and the ceiling was showing the velvety-black starry sky outside… Unfortunately, he didn't get to enjoy this sight in peace as some girl, most likely the very one that was looking for Neville's toad on the train, in front of him began loudly whispering what she has read about this ceiling from one book or another. It annoyed him greatly and forced him to focus on suppressing his arising anger instead...

The deputy headmistress led the first years past the tables occupied by the older students and up to the smaller table at the far end of the hall where the professors were seated. She then silently placed a four-legged stool in front of the about-to-be-sorted youths. On top of the stool she then put a pointed wizard's hat, which seemed to draw attention of the upperclassmen to itself. A few moments later, Harry understood what was so interesting about this old and dirty rag: the hat twitched and rip near the brim opened wide like a mouth. Then the hat began to sing. It was ...awful at it, and the lyrics were equally terrible, but the people seemed to be fascinated by this performance.

Once the song was over, the Great Hall burst into applause. The hat bowed to each of the four tables, as if thanking the students for their generosity, before becoming still again. Meanwhile, professor McGonagall stepped forward, how holding a long roll of parchment in her hands.

"When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted." She said, causing some more quiet whispers among the firsties as they were still trying to accept the fact that the sorting was done by an ancient animated hat. Harry, who was familiar with the concept of Armed and Intelligent Devices, thanks to Zero, had a little easier time here, but he still wasn't looking forward to putting this annoying talking hat on. "Abbott, Hannah!" Professor McGonagall called. A few moments later the young Eclipse Driver saw a blond girl who rode the boat with him nervously stumble out of line, sit down on the stool and put the Sorting Hat on.

"Hufflepuff!" The hat announced after a second or two. The table to his immediate right, the one under the yellow-and-black banner with a badger drawn on it, immediately began cheering and clapping as Hannah's neutrally-gray tie and robe trims switched their colors to those of her new house. Taking the Sorting Hat off, the bashful blonde hurried to sit down at the Hufflepuff table, all the while the ghost of the friar was waving merrily at her.

"Bones, Susan!" Professor McGonagall called for the next person to be sorted - coincidentally, the other companion Harry had during the boat ride. She too was rather quickly sorted into Hufflepuff. As the next firstie was called to try on the Sorting Hat, Harry tuned the whole thing out: he didn't really care who got sorted where, so the ceremony was of little interest to him. Still, he paid some attention to sortings of the people who managed to irk him already.

Thus, when the know-it-all girl from before, Hermione Granger, got sorted into Gryffindor, the young Potter quickly decided that he didn't want to go there; he'd be driven completely crazy within a couple of days if he had to spend more than a token amount of time around her… And once the Malfoy brat joined his cronies in Slytherin, Harry knew that he didn't want to be sorted into the house of the Snake either.

Finally, his name was called. Doing his best to ignore the annoying whispers that broke out like little hissing fires all over the hall, the green-eyed Eclipse Driver stepped forward and approached the stool where the Sorting Hat was waiting for him. Taking a deep breath, he sat down and placed the artifact on the top of his head. And waited. He wasn't sure what was supposed to happen as the hat sorted him, but he was pretty sure that 'nothing' wasn't it. Suddenly, the hat spoke, addressing not to him, but to the Hogwarts staff.

"I am not able to sort this one." In an instant, the Great Hall exploded in loud whispers as the people tried to make up a senseful explanation to what was happening in front of them right now. The professors too were rather surprised by this development.

"What do you mean?" Dumbledore asked, leaning forwards in his throne-like chair.

"Just what I've just said: I am not able to sort this one." The Sorting Hat responded. "To me, it is like Mr. Potter isn't even there." That gave Harry an idea of what was actually going on: it looked like his Eclipse Factor was interfering with whatever magic the hat was using to sort the students.

" _Hm… Zero, what do you think? Can our anti-magic aura be the cause of this?_ " The young Driver asked his companion. The Strosek-girl thought about it for a moment, before answering this question.

「 _This unit believes that it is a likely explanation._ 」 She said telepathically.

" _Alright, let's see if this helps.. Could you please let the hat do its job?_ " And with those words Harry tried his best to reign in the Eclipse's anti-magic field, before going back to listening to the Hat and Dumbledore talk. There were a few terms thrown out in their discussion that made no sense to him, but he paid them no mind for the moment. Suddenly, the hat stopped mid-sentence, pausing for a few seconds before starting a new sentence.

"Hm,.. Interesting... I think I can sort Mr. Potter now." It said out aloud. A moment later Harry felt a presence enter his head. " _That's… quite a mind you have here, Mr. Potter._ " The hat said to him, sounding rather surprised by whatever it saw in there. " _And - oh my - it looks like you aren't alone there either..._ " So it could sense Zero too? But before Harry could come up with a good threat to ensure that the hat kept its mouth shut, it told him that it would do that regardless: " _But worry not, Mr. Potter. Your secrets are yours to keep… Now, why don't we get to sorting you?_ "

" _Alright._ " Harry agreed, not knowing what else he could say.

" _Interesting, very interesting… You aren't seeking friends, and your trust and loyalty are difficult to earn..._ " The hat spoke as it began analyzing his character. " _You possess a cunning and devious mind, but lack a true ambition and you give your best only on the battlefield. Subtlety isn't one of your strengths either…_ " It paused for a moment before continuing. " _What you don't lack, Mr. Potter, is bravery. Alas, it is so because you know that your injuries will all be healed. And there is no honor to go with it… You aren't a true seeker of knowledge either; for you, knowledge is but a tool to achieve your goal… Yes, sorting you will be difficult, very difficult indeed._ "

" _Then, I'd rather you not put me in Gryffindor or Slytherin._ " Harry replied.

" _And, why is that?_ " The Sorting Hat asked, before 'reading' the answer for its own question from the young Potter's mind. " _Ah, I see… And, yes, you are right. Given your rocky start with those I've already sorted there, those houses would be a bad option for you… This leaves us with Rowena's and Helga's houses then… Where shall I sort you?_ " There was a much longed pause, before the hat continued: " _Well, neither of these houses would be the perfect place for you, so why don't I ask where you would like to go, eh, Mr. Potter?_ "

" _I don't care; just sort me somewhere I won't be irked into madness._ " Was all that the young Eclipse Driver could say. And his response seemed to amuse the hat.

" _I see..._ " It said. " _Well, as I said, neither Ravenclaw nor Hufflepuff would be the perfect place for you; both of these houses will have things and traditions that would annoy you, Mr. Potter. But, I'd say, you will find you life a little bit easier under the black-and-yellow banner._ " Harry gave the hat a telepathic equivalent of an indifferent shrug. " _Very well, then you better be..._ **Hufflepuff!** " The last word wasn't a part of their mental conversation and, instead, was announced to the whole Great Hall.

Silence, broken only by the sound of someone fainting head-first onto the table, descended upon the Great Hall for a brief moment as he stood from the stool and took off the hat before making his way down to the Hufflepuff table. He managed to make a few steps in this silence before his new housemates caught with the reality and started clapping, welcoming him into the fold. A few more seconds passed, and the people from the other houses joined in, while the few and quiet claps from 'Puffs grew thunderous Harry would have liked it more if he wasn't welcomed into his house so noisily, but… Walking past his housemates, the young Potter took a seat at the far end of the Hufflepuff table, where there weren't many people who might bother him with their irksome questions.

As he had no further interest in the Sorting Ceremony, Harry tuned it right out. The few 'Puffs that sat nearby tried to ask him some questions, but his only response was a stony silence and a glare, thus they soon decided that bothering him wasn't worth it… Eventually, the last of the firsties was sorted and the headmaster took word.

"Welcome students, both old and new, to another year at Hogwarts! Before we begin the banquet, I would like you all to welcome our new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, Quirinus Quirrell." He pointed at a 'twitchy' man in a purple turban, who was sitting a few seats away from him on the left. The said wizard rose to his feet and gave a quick bow, before seating himself back down.. "Now then,.." Dumbledore continued. "Just a few more words before we begin the feast: Oddment! Nitwit! Tweak! Blubber! Thank you."

The Headmaster gave a bow before seating himself again to the clapping of the students and a few of the staff. Not everyone, however, thought that this odd speech of his was great. The black robed-man at the end of the table that looked like an overgrown bat, and professor McGonagall both responded to it with an annoyed sigh.

Shaking his head at the sheer strangeness the Headmaster apparently held in great amount, Harry turned his gaze back to the Hufflepuff table and immediately noticed that the previously-empty plates there were now piled with food. He had never seen this much food in his life; it seemed like every dish imaginable was served at this feast. He didn't even know what half of the dishes were even called! And upon realizing how hungry he was, the young Eclipse Driver wasted no time and put a bit of everything within his reach onto his plate and began to eat.

And just when he thought that he couldn't eat anymore, the food on the plates vanished, only to be replaced by various desserts a moment later. Damn, Harry thought, looking at this abundance: this was more food than he has seen in his entire life, and if normal meals were even half as plentiful, then it would be a real shame if he was forced to leave this place because he lost control over his emotions and went on an Eclipse-induced killing spree.

Eventually, the Welcoming Feast reached its conclusion, and the desserts disappeared from the tables. Then the headmaster stood up and took the word again, addressing the students in the Great Hall:

"Ahem." He 'said', prompting the last of whispered conversations to die down. "Just a few more words now that we are all fed and watered. I have a few start-of-term notices to give you." Making a second-long pause he continued: "First years should note that the forest on the grounds is a dangerous place and therefore is forbidden to all pupils. And a few of our older students would do well to remember that as well." And while a pair of red-headed twins at the Gryffindor table were busy faking their embarrassment, Harry made a mental note to start exploring this forest as soon as possible: he needed a place where he could 'safely' vent his anger, and a forest full of dangerous beasts sounded like a perfect place for that.

"I have also been asked by Mr. Filch, our caretaker, to remind you all that no magic should be used between classes in the corridors. Quidditch trials will be held in the second week of the term. Anyone interested in playing for their house teams should contact Madam Hooch." Since Harry didn't care about Quidditch at all, this announcement didn't have any effect on him; many students around the Great Hall, however, were much excited by it. "And finally, I must tell you that this year, the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a very painful death." Dumbledore said, causing the entire student body to explode into whispers. Harry meanwhile, wondered, whether he should go see how tough this 'very painful death' actually was - if it was some dangerous beast, maybe he should make it his punching bag instead? Sneaking into this corridor would surely be easier than going to the Forbidden Forest, right?

"And now, before we go to bed, let us sing the school song!" Dumbledore announced, making the smiles of many people around the Great Hall, students' and teachers' alike, rather fixed. And Harry immediately got the feeling that this song will not be something very tolerable. He was quickly proven right when the headmaster added: "Everyone pick their favorite tune, and off we go!"

And then the cacophony of voices began. It was downright _terrible_ and even stopping his ears didn't help Harry much. Thankfully, this torture didn't last for very long and soon enough the things got better as soon enough the only ones left 'singing' were the Gryffindor red-haired twins, who picked an extremely slow funeral march as their tune. But even they couldn't have gone forever, and, before long, they too were done. And when that finally happened, Dumbledore was the loudest of the few people that genuinely applauded this performance.

"Ah, music." The headmaster said, as he wiped a tear from his eyes. "A magic beyond all we do here! And now, bedtime. Off you trot!"

"First years, group together, we'll be leaving shortly!" Over the clamoring of students several voices rose and made a slight order, though Harry only heard the one that came from the other end of the Hufflepuff table. Rising from the table a bit slower than most of the other students, he made his way to the back of the forming group of Hufflepuffs, pointedly ignoring several of the glances that were sent his way A quick minute was spent for the entire group to gather before they were off, following the slightly smaller group of Slytherins out of the Great Hall and then towards the dungeons.

Then the two groups split with the 'Puffs taking a turn towards the kitchens - at the very least the smell pervading the corridors here made Harry think that the kitchens were somewhere nearby - and then making their way down another corridor till they reached a nook with a stack of large wooden barrels quite obviously placed there to conceal something. And, indeed, a door shaped like a lid of a barrel was hidden behind this stack.

"The entrance into our common room is located here." The guiding prefect began. "And in order to enter it, you'll need to tap on this barrel..." He said while placing his hand on the barrel in the middle of the stack's second row. "...like this." He then tapped in the rhythm of 'Helga Hufflepuff'. A moment later, the door leading into the common room swung open. "Please, do not reveal this to anyone from other houses." The prefect added as they all walked through that door, his tone making it clear that whoever revealed this secret to an outside would suffer a slow and painful death.

The Hufflepuff common room itself was a large round room located in the cellar. It had a low ceiling, though the windows and a warm feeling made it feel more spacious than it likely should have, numerous plants were hung from the ceiling and walls with wild abandon and somehow moonlight was cast through the windows despite the room being below the ground and in the middle of the castle. It was a very homey place and Harry found himself actually liking it quite a bit; at least right now, when there weren't any people making loud noise there... Once they reached the center of the room, the prefect stopped and addressed the firsties again:

"The boys' dormitories are on the left." He said, nodding towards one of the smaller round doors leading out of the common room. He then pointed out to another door, roughly set parallel to the first one. "The girls' dormitories are on the right. Please note that boys can't go into girls' dormitories and vice versa; if you want to socialize, do so here." After a short pause, he continued. "We know that today's been a long day for you all, so we won't be taking any more of your time tonight. Instead, professor Sprout will give her speech tomorrow morning, just before the breakfast. Your things have been delivered to the castle and are waiting for you in the dorm rooms. If you need anything, don't hesitate to ask any of the prefects or our head of the house. Thank you, and have a nice and restful night." And with that, he walked away and left the first years to themselves.

Harry wasted little time and headed for the dorms as soon as the prefect left while the rest of the first-years were still talking among themselves and saying goodnights. Just like the prefect had said, it'd had been a long and trying day for him, first with the noise, then with train ride's interruptions, and finally the terrible singing and the hat, he couldn't wait for a chance to get finally get some rest. Entering through the door he found a room filled with multiple beds with curtains ready to be drawn, lamps hanging from the ceiling giving off a soft light and copper… things on the wall. He paused for a moment to wonder what they were before mentally shrugging and moving to the bed the farthest from the door: it was the best place for him as he won't be disturbed by the people walking past his here as much. Moving his trunk to the foot of this bed, the young Eclipse Driver quickly changed out of his robes and got into his bed, ready for some nice and relaxing sleep.

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That's all, folks!  
 **Read** and **Review**!


	7. First Night, First Day

The seventh chapter of the " ** _Power of Eclipse_** " story is here for your enjoyment, folks!

 *** Review Response**:  
 **wahyubison** , **davycrockett100** , **Ranmaleopard** , thank you for your reviews, folks!  
 **raigalcc** , **ultima-owner** , hehe.  
 **shadowchaos5150** , yes, Harry will be involved at least in the final battle of StrikerS. As for your first question - not long... The killing curse, however... Harry's AMF isn't powerful enough to completely negate the unforgivables and other spells of similar power, thus it all depends on whether the killing curse remains lethal as long as it was cast correctly and with the right emotion behind it (in this case, it would still kill Harry), or it needs a have certain amount of raw power to do its job (in this case Harry's AMF will turn it non-lethal. It wouldn't be a spell you'd want to be hit with, though.)  
 **Duel** (guest), Harry's going to visit the Administered Worlds this next summer, so it's not that far away. Maybe. But, yeah, aside from a few cameos, Hückebeins won't show up until much later.

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 **Disclaimer** : " ** _Harry Potter_** " and " _ **Mahou Shoujou Lyrical Nanoha**_ " belong to their respective owners. No profit is being made. The same goes for any other media that might be used as the sources of ideas and inspiration.

"speaking"  
" _telepathy_ "  
「 _Devices speaking_ 」  
' _thinking_ '  
" **spells** "

Additional **Disclaimer** : The authors of this story **in no way approve** murder as a solution to interpersonal conflicts.

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 **Power of Eclipse  
Chapter ****VII: First Night, First Day**

One Severus Snape paced inside his rather cramped office in the Slytherin dungeons. A lot was on his mind, but what truly occupied his thoughts at the moment was Harry Potter, the son of his schoolyard nemesis. For a long time he has dreaded the day when the boy would be forced into his life and, had Dumbledore not told him to give the brat a chance, he'd have probably done something stupid before long and turned his fears into a self-fulfilling prophecy…

Thanks to the headmaster's words, though, he decided to give the young Mr. Potter a chance, and it looked like the boy actually wasn't a miniature version of his father. In fact, it appeared that those two shared little beyond their looks and the family name. Indeed, from what he saw during the Sorting Ceremony and the Welcoming Feast that followed it, the Potter spawn wasn't a pampered prince he'd expected him to be. Nor did the boy show any signs of boastfulness or overbearing ego. He didn't end up sorted into in Gryffindor either.

Instead, Harry Potter was quiet and withdrawn boy - though by no means shy or lacking in confidence - who had that cold aura of danger surrounding him. And, somehow, he ended up in Hufflepuff of all houses. What was the Sorting Hat thinking when it made this decision? - the boy had no characteristics normally associated with that house. Perhaps, it tried to push Mr. Potter towards opening up and making some friends like that? Hopefully, the hat hasn't made a mistake as his gut feeling was telling Severus that things could turn ugly quickly here should the wrong move be made.

With his expectation of Mr. Potter failing to meet what was apparently the boy's demeanour, Severus took a moment to think about reworking his first lesson's introduction a bit: until he had a solid grasp on the depths of the boy's personality and… issues, he couldn't risk doing anything that could possibly set him off. Now then...he had a lesson to plan that would hopefully keep the dunderheads among the group from blowing up their cauldrons, while also proving challenging enough for the Ravenclaw students. Oh the joys of having Ravenclaws together with Hufflepuffs… At least they got along much better than his Snakes and Minerva's Lions did.

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Severus Snape wasn't the only one who couldn't put the thoughts about this year's Sorting Ceremony out of his head. Up in his office, headmaster Dumbledore too was reflecting over what had happened earlier tonight. Or, to be more precise, he was doing his best to make sense of the enigma that Harry Potter turned out to be. Indeed, there was something ... _different_ about him, and not really in a good way.

There was barely a trace of childlike innocence left in him; it was like something just ...stole all that from him, and the aged wizard really hoped that whatever it was, it hadn't turned Harry into a complete monster. At the very least, Dumbledore tried to reassure himself, it didn't look like the young Mr. Potter was a sadistic, domineering bastard like Tom… Thank Merlin for small mercies, as Magical Britain might not be able to survive another Dark Lord…

His lack of innocence wasn't the only thing not right about Harry, though. There also was that thing with him somehow hiding his mind from the Sorting Hat completely - a feat that, as far as the Hogwarts headmaster knew, was beyond even the most powerful and skilled Occlumenses. And when he himself tried to use some light Legilimency on the boy during the feast, his probe just ...disappeared? That wasn't normal, Dumbledore was sure of it. Was Hagrid able to somehow sense this strange aura that Harry seemed to possess? Was this why he described the boy as 'wrong'? Albus really hoped that this and not something else - something darker - was the reason for Hagrid's description of the boy.

And while not as concerning, there also was the matter of Harry being sorted into Hufflepuff. No, there was nothing wrong with Hufflepuff; it was a great, even if rather under-appreciated, house. No, it was the reason _why_ Harry was sorted there that concerned Dumbledore. "It is better this way. For everyone." - that was what the Sorting Hat said when he asked it about its reasoning. And, Albus knew he would be lying if he said that those words didn't sound at least a little ominous.

Still, despite all these strange and even a bit worrisome things pertaining to the young Mr. Potter, Dumbledore decided that he had no reason to interfere yet. That didn't, however, mean that he wouldn't keep a close eye on Harry for the time being. Just in case something that actually required his intervention happened…

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Sleep wasn't coming to Pomona Sprout either as she sat around making last-minute preparations for the morning. The Herbology professor and the head of the Hufflepuff house just couldn't focus on the speech and lessons she was making ready. First there had been the... object Albus had brought in without consulting anyone, then the first years arriving later than they should have, and then the Sorting Ceremony itself lasting longer than usual. All of that put together had ended up with the feast going on until just past curfew, which unfortunately meant that she hadn't been able to welcome the first years to Hufflepuff and get to know their names and personalities.

She'd been able to get a cursory look at her newest badgers during the feast, most seemed to enjoy the company of their housemates and seemed to get along well enough, though she knew better than to take that as them being friends for life. Most were friendly with the older students and their peers, and seemed to laugh and joke about without a care in the world, something their older housemates indulged them in. That didn't hold true for every single one of her 'Puffs, though; one in particular being drawing her attention more than the rest, Harry Potter, a boy that at a glance should have gone to Filius or Severus instead.

The young Mr. Potter sat at a respectable distance from his new housemates, both his peers and the older ones, during the Welcoming Feast and sought no contact with them. It also didn't look like he shared the celebratory mood with his peers. Whether this was simply because he was uncomfortable around others, or there was some other, deeper reason, Pomona didn't know... Anyhow, this anti-social behavior of his was more in line with how Ravenclaws or Slytherins conducted themselves. Why had the Sorting Hat decided to place him into her house? Was it because Mr. Potter was someone with admirable work ethics? - Helga Hufflepuff did value hardworking almost as much she did friendliness and loyalty, after all...

Well, she'd have her chance to talk to Harry soon enough along with the rest of the Hufflepuff in the morning. And, hopefully, that would give her an insight into what the green-eyed youth was like and, maybe, she'd be able to bring some joy back into his life… And speaking of talking to her little badgers, she still needed to finalize the welcoming speech she was going to give them tomorrow morning: Albus's sudden decision to bring the unmentionable object into the castle meant that she needed to change her usual speech to stress the dangers awaiting in the forbidden corridor.

 **~/ *** \~**

Harry woke up early the next morning, just as fake sunlight began streaming through equally-fake round windows the dorm room had. Sitting up on 'his' bed, which, by the way, was far more comfortable than he was used to, the young Eclipse Driver tried to come up with a good way to kill a couple of hours he had before professor Sprout's speech.

He probably could sneak out of the Hufflepuff dormitories and go exploring the castle and its neighborhood - the corridor on right-hand side of the third floor and the Forbidden Forest sounded like some great places for him to visit - but, to be honest, he didn't really feel like doing that right now. His anger was manageable currently, so he didn't need to sate his the Eclipse right now and while scouting those areas now would help him later, knowing where his classes would be taking place took precedence. Not because he cared about getting to there on time, but because he knew that being forced to listen to a rant about his lack of punctuality would make his anger spike - something he'd rather avoid.

Thus, forcing himself out of the bed, the green-eyed youth summoned his casual 'clothes' and silently slipped out of the dorm room. A quick walk through a burrow-like corridor later he was in the common room. And there he ran into a major obstacle, a pair of older students that were guarding the exit door. When he approached them, one of them said:

"Sorry, but I can't let you out yet. Professor Sprout insisted on first years not leaving the common room until after her speech." Hearing this made Harry's anger spike a little. He certainly didn't like being confined like that. And while he could easily force his way through the pair guarding the door, he quickly discarded this idea as doing so would, undoubtedly, cause him way more problems than a little bit of exploring the castle was worth. Thus, letting out a rather-unintelligible sound of acknowledgment through gritted teeth, he turned on his heels and stomped his way back to his dorm room, mind racing to think up something else he could occupy himself with for the next hour or two.

Harry ended up busying himself with reading through his Astronomy textbook in a dark corner of the common room where he was unlikely to be disturbed. Why Astronomy? Well, while he cared little for how the movements of celestial bodies affected the wizarding Magic, it felt oddly nice to know that no one but him was aware that some of the stars mentioned in the textbook actually had habitable planets orbiting them, some of which were even inhabited. And imagining what life and Magic was like on those worlds was a good way for the young Potter to forget about stuff troubling him at the moment.

Eventually though, he was brought back to the reality by the bustling of prefects, who were crowding the firsties into the common room: it was the time for professor Sprout's speech.

"Good morning everyone, and welcome to Hufflepuff." The witch began. "I hope you all had a wonderful night and have already made friends with your housemates. Now for introductions, I am Pomona Sprout, your Head of House and the Herbology professor. As your Head of House I am essentially in charge of you and responsible for your wellbeing, safety and behavior, however don't take that to mean I'm above day-to-day matters, I'll happily listen to any problems you may run into over the course of this year and the rest of your years here at Hogwarts."

Clapping her hands together and giving a smile she continued her speech after a short pause to take a breath, "As the Headmaster said during the Welcoming Feast yesterday, this year the right-hand side of the 3rd floor corridor is off-limits for all students, and I sincerely hope all of you heed those words. Similarly, the Forbidden Forest is named that way for a good reason; many dangerous magical beasts and plants live there, so, please, steer clear of it unless you're accompanied by a professor or the gamekeeper. Now then, with that out of the way, let us be on our way to the Great Hall. Your breakfast is already waiting for you there." Making another small pause, she added. "I'll be handing out your timetables at the end of the breakfast, so please, don't leave until you get yours."

* * *

Harry let out yet another sigh as he trailed behind his new classmates. Professor Sprout was personally escorting them to the Great Hall for some breakfast, but he'd rather go there alone. Also, he had no need for a guide - it wasn't like he needed to travel about the entire castle to get there from the Hufflepuff common room; and should he somehow manage to get lost, Zero with her perfect memory would be there to 'save' him - so he found the whole thing quite annoying. People whispering among themselves about him weren't helping either.

As soon as he arrived to the Great Hall, though, things went from bad to worse as the number of people staring at him and whispering about him among themselves quadrupled… He really needed to find a way to have his meals away from all these crowds, otherwise it wouldn't be long before he was lost himself into the anger and created a massacre. Shoving those thoughts into the deep corner of his mind, the young Eclipse Driver switched his attention to the breakfast that was waiting for him on the Hufflepuff table. Hopefully, concentrating on the food in front of him instead of all those annoying people around him would let him weather this meal without his blood-stained madness rearing its ugly head…

And, well, while certainly not as varied as the feast yesternight, the food served for breakfast was just as plentiful. So, piling some on his plate, Harry began his repast, deliberately eating as slowly as he could to make his meal last until professor Sprout handed out the timetables and he could leave the Great Hall freely.

It was a long meal for the green-eyed youth, but, eventually, the head of the Hufflepuff got up from the professor's table and descended towards that of her students, the ticket to his 'freedom' in her hands… Well, perhaps he should've taken a seat somewhere closer to the rest of his classmates as it looked like it'll take professor Sprout a while to reach his end of the table. Letting out a sigh, Harry did his best to ignore the stares and curious whispers of other students as he waited for his head of the house to finally give him his timetable…

"Here you go, Mr. Potter." The professor said while handing him his ticket to the 'freedom'. Which, Harry noted with a bit of a surprise, consisted of two pieces of parchment. Did he have so many classes that the timetable couldn't be fit onto one?.. Turns out, the second sheet was actually a very simple map of Hogwarts. Only the classrooms for his classes, the Great Hall and the Library were marked on it. The Hufflepuff common room, however, wasn't marked; probably to keep its location secret from those sorted into the other houses on the chance someone little 'Puff lost his or her sheet.

Shrugging, Harry switched his attention back to his timetable, somewhat curious about which classes he'dl have to endure today… And it looked like the Fates hated him as he got double Transfiguration in the morning, followed by Charms and History of Magic in the afternoon - possibly the worst combination for him…

From his practice with a few spells before coming here, he knew already that he would terrible in the former two as wizarding spells still made no sense to him and so he had no idea what he was doing wrong when he failed to make them work. And even if he somehow succeeded in casting a spell properly, it always ended up greatly underpowered as most of his efforts were going into suppressing his Eclipse Factor rather than into the spell itself.

His last class for today was History of Magic - something that was a bit better than Charms or Transfiguration, but only because there were no spells for him to fail and so he wouldn't become frustrated with his continued lack of success. Still, it was history… A class that was more than a little inutile in his opinion. He was at a place dedicated to magical studies, so he should be studying Magic, not some useless crap about what the life was like in the magical world a thousand years ago! He had almost no doubts that by the end of today he'd be restraining himself from lashing out at someone, and he'd have to go find and kill something to sate his 'problem'.

Anyway, now that he finally had his timetable, there wasn't any reason for him to remain here with all those annoying people anymore. So, quickly finishing whatever food he still had on his plate, the Earth's only Eclipse Driver stood up from the table and quickly left the Great Hall, heading back to the Hufflepuff dormitories. Upon his arrival there a few minutes later, Harry wasted no time and started packing his schoolbag with everything he thought he might need today. Once done, he stayed there no longer and began his journey to the classroom 1B, where his Transfiguration class would be held, the map given to him by professor Sprout there to guide him to his destination.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, he was the first one to arrive to the classroom. Even the professor wasn't there yet; only some tabby cat lounging on a windowsill. Shrugging, Hogwarts' only Eclipse Driver took a seat behind a lonely desk near the far end of the room. Hopefully, he thought, having no annoying neighbours to deal with would help him weather the coming class without going mad.

A few minutes passed, and other students - both his housemates and those wearing Slytherin's green-and-silver neckties - began trickling into the classroom. Some of them actually seemed to have entertained the idea of getting a seat next to him, but a glare from Harry was enough to dissuade them from this idea and go pick a seat closer to the blackboard instead…

Eventually, the bell rang and the students not yet sitting hastened to their desks, fearful of the deputy headmistress's wraith. However, she didn't arrive even a few minutes after the bell, and the more daring students began whispering among themselves, wondering where professor McGonagall was. That was when the cat got onto its paws and jumped off the windowsill, transforming into a rather amused witch in the mid-air. She then proceeded to demonstrate exactly what one could do if he or she mastered the art of Transfiguration: with little more than a flick of her wand she changed her entire desk into a large and very life-like pig. Then, just as the artificial creature let out a fearful oink, she turned it back into the table it used to be.

"Transfiguration is some of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts. Anyone messing around in my classes will leave and not come back. You have been warned." She said sternly as she looked around the the classroom, trying to spot the troublemakers who wouldn't take her warning to heart. Not seeing anyone like that, the witch continued, now in a more pleasant tone: "Today we shall begin learning the runic alphabet with the help of which transfiguration spells are defined..." And as those words left her mouth, the deputy headmistress waved her wand and the previously blank blackboard was now covered with some quite detailed notes on the subject of today's lecture… This was followed by the rustling of students reaching for their quills and parchment rolls, some of them muttering about it being so unfair that they had to do so much writing on their very first lesson in Magic.

Copying those notes down from the blackboard definitely wasn't a task that could be done in a matter of minutes, but, to Harry's surprise, it didn't take him the entire period to complete it either. In fact, by the time an half-hour was left for the class, only a few one-track students were still scribbling in their notebooks. That was when professor McGonagall decided that her class has had enough theory for the day.

"Alright." The stern witch said, drawing everyone's attention. "Now that you've finished taking notes on the runic alphabet used in the field of Transfiguration, we will dedicate the rest of our class today to some practice of the art." With a quick wave of her wand, she sent a bunch of matchsticks that were previously sitting on her table flying across the classroom, one matchstick landing in front of every student. "For your first steps in Transfiguration, I'd like you to change these matchsticks into needles. It should not be a very difficult task as these objects are of similar size and shape. Do try your best to make the change happen." And so Harry's dreaded practice in wanded magic began…

This turned out to be not all that bad though, as while Harry still had absolutely no luck with making the transfiguration spells work for him - and that was eroding his already rather fragile self-control - he wasn't the only one struggling. In fact, from what he could see and hear, there wasn't a single student in his class that managed to make any noticeably progress. Even among those who were raised in the magical households. This did ease his worries, though only a little bit as it was only a matter of time before his classmates left him in the dust and he was forced to endure their mockery or their pity because he couldn't use wizarding magic properly.

* * *

The Charms class in the afternoon started much the same way. First, the professor gave a very spectacular demonstration of what can be achieved with the branch of magic he taught in his class, and then it was boring theory time… Well, actually not all that boring as professor Flitwick somehow managed to make even taking notes from the blackboard into a rather lively activity. There, however, was no practice following the lecture as between loads of magical theory and the diminutive wizard's relaxed teaching style there simply wasn't enough time left from the class for anything like that. That they had only a single period instead of two like Transfiguration had didn't help either.

The final class for the day was History of Magic. And it turned out to be an even greater disappointment and waste of time than Harry expected… The teacher, professor Binns, was a ghost, whose droning monotonous voice could put everyone but the most determined students to sleep in a matter of minutes. Even he had issues staying awake, and the only reason he did was because he had Zero to keep him company and distract him from that cursed voice of the spectral teacher that drove people into sleep - something that his welling up annoyance at how 'wrong' today was couldn't do by itself..

Once the bell signifying the end of the torture session commonly known as "History of Magic" class finally rang, Harry wasted no time and hurried back to the Hufflepuff dormitories. There, he dropped off his bag and quickly changed out of those horrendous robes he had to wear for his classes into a much more comfortable outfit that he created for himself with his magic. Being able to summon Combat Protective Clothings was quite a useful skill.

Now, it was finally time for him to explore the castle and its grounds! But where to first, the green-eyed Eclipse Driver wondered to himself. He was feeling rather antsy after his classes today, so he needed a place where he could release his pent-up stress. Thus, the forbidden corridor and the forest on the castle's grounds were at the top of his to-visit list. And, seeing as there would likely be other students trying to sneak into the corridor this first week, going to the Forbidden Forest sounded like a much better idea, if only because it would let him avoid the other students who were the source of his stress in the first place. His decision made, Harry proceeded to walk through the hallways to the entrance and headed out of the castle.

At the front doors he got stopped by the caretaker, who sternly reminded him 'Not to treck any mud into the castle', but aside from that getting outdoors was a breeze for the young Potter. Now, all that he needed was to sneak into the Forbidden Forest… Unfortunately, if he made straight for the forest, it was almost guaranteed that some faculty member would see him. And should that happen, Harry had no doubts that he'd end up subjected to an annoying and pointless lecture that would bring the calming effects of his little excursion into the forest to naught.

It didn't take the green-eyed youth long to come up with a solution to this problem, though: he could pretend to be interested in whatever Hagrid was growing in the market garden behind his hut, and then sneak into the forest once he was no longer in sight of the people in the castle. He just hoped that the half-giant himself wouldn't be there to stop him. Thankfully for Harry, the Hogwarts gamekeeper indeed was somewhere else, and so he had no problems putting his plan into motion.

Even though the sun was shining brightly in the skies, barely any of its light reached through the thick dark foliage of the Forbidden Forest. The place itself was telling that normal humans had no business there. But he wasn't just a normal human - not since he came in contact with Zero - so the young Eclipse Driver pushed forward, deeper and deeper into the ancient, dark forest...

After walking for what felt like an hour and not finding any beasts to kill, Harry finally found something that might interest him: between two trees hung a gigantic spider web with a deer caught in it. Whatever monster spider made this web, it was probably just as big. A blood-thirsty smile creeped onto his face.

"This is going to be so much fun." He whispered to himself, imagining a satisfying fight this beast will give him. And, drawing his trusty knife, Harry pushed deeper into the Forbidden Forest with invigorated enthusiasm.

* * *

That's all, folks!  
 **Read** and **Review**!


	8. Power Revealed

Surprisingly enough, this story is not pinning for the fjords yet. And here's the eighth chapter for your enjoyment, folks!

 *** Review Response**:  
 **raigalcc** , no, Harry isn't and likely won't even be a part of the Hückebein Family. But, yes, poor acromantula...  
 **The Ultimate Balance Chaos** , **lordamnesia** , that you for your reviews, folks!  
 **ultima-owner** , that's 'Puffs for you!  
 **Duel** , nah, Harry can't kill Voldie until he gets himself a proper body. Right now, the most Harry can do is kill the host, which won't do much more than inconvenience our Dark Lord.

* * *

 **Disclaimer** : " ** _Harry Potter_** " and " _ **Mahou Shoujou Lyrical Nanoha**_ " belong to their respective owners. No profit is being made. The same goes for any other media that might be used as the sources of ideas and inspiration.

"speaking"  
" _telepathy_ "  
「 _Devices speaking_ 」  
' _thinking_ '  
" **spells** "

Additional **Disclaimer** : The authors of this story **in no way approve** murder as a solution to interpersonal conflicts.

* * *

 **Power of Eclipse  
Chapter ****VIII:** **Power Revealed**

The next morning, just as he was leaving the common room for the Great Hall, Harry was stopped by a Hufflepuff prefect whose name he didn't care about. The wizard in question didn't look all that happy about the job pushed onto him but, nevertheless, politely informed the green-eyed Eclipse Driver that professor Sprout wanted to talk to him later this afternoon.

For a moment this made Harry worry that someone has seen him sneaking into the Forbidden Forest and reported him - he really wasn't looking forward to listening to the Hogwarts staff bitching about him not following their stupid rules - but he quickly dismissed this idea as an unlikely one. Indeed, if professor Sprout was aware of his excursion into the forest, there was no way she'd wait till afternoon to tear him a new one for this 'misdeed'. Not to mention that she would've tried to intercept him personally instead of sending a mere prefect to inform him about the meeting.

Having reached this conclusion, the green-eyed youth pushed the thoughts about his upcoming meeting with professor Sprout to the back of his head. There were other, more pressing things for him to worry about right now. He still had todays classes to endure and the constant stares of his classmates and their whispers behind his back weren't helping him any. True, it wasn't as bad today thanks to the successful monster hunt he had in the forest yesterday, but… How long this period of serenity would last, Harry had no idea.

* * *

Harry stopped in front of the professor Sprout's office, still without any idea why his head of the house wanted to see him and, to be honest, he was a little worried that she might have summoned him to lecture him about something. Anyhow, he'd be in way more trouble if he just ignored this order, so, letting out a small sigh, he steeled his nerves and knocked on the door. An answer came almost immediately:

"Come in." The head of Hufflepuff house called. With another small sigh, Harry opened the door and entered professor Sprout's office. Much like the dormitories, it was a homey, low-ceiling room, decorated with panels of some light wood and many potted plants, quite a few of which were obviously magical. Professor Sprout herself was seated behind a large table with stacks of parchments and tomes on Herbology cluttered on it. Behind her there was a large bookcase with more books on the topic as well as a pile of diagrams, the one Harry could see depicting the correct way to replant some weird root crop. "Please, take a seat, Mr. Potter." The witch said while gesturing at a comfy-looking chair by her table.

Thanking his head of the house with a brief nod, the young Eclipse Driver took the offered seat. For the next few moments the room was silent except for the rhythmic ticking of the clock. Then professor Sprout spoke again:

"You must be wondering why I've summoned you here, Mr. Potter?" She asked. Receiving a nod of confirmation from the green-eyed mage, she continued: "Well, I've only called you here for a few simple questions if you're willing to answer. They will help me make your time at Hogwarts more comfortable and enjoyable." Ah, Harry thought, that's what this all was about…

"Alright." He agreed, albeit not sounding very eager to share anything about himself.

"Well then." Professor Sprout began. "I know, you've been here for only two days, but please tell me what you think of Hogwarts so far."

"It's… confusing." The green-eyed youth replied after a few seconds. Indeed, navigating the castle with numerous secret passages, moving staircases and corridors that led to a different area at different times was not easy at all. Especially for someone who was used to living in a world that was quite exact and logical. "It's also very crowded." He added shortly afterwards.

"How so?" The head of the Hufflepuff house asked, a little confused by his words as there actually weren't that many students attending Hogwarts these years, no thanks to the Dark Lord and the Blood War he waged against the Magical Britain. Plus, wasn't Mr. Potter raised in the muggle world? Surely, he had attended a school there.

"I do not do well when around other people." Harry admitted after a few moments of silence. That was about as much as he was willing to share right now.

"I see…" Pomona breathed out. "Is that also why you don't really interact with your housemates or peers?" She received only a nod in response. So, Mr. Potter was a loner who preferred to keep his distance from the others, she though. Not exactly a Hufflepuff material, but the Sorting Hat surely had a good reason to place him into her house… "Alright then,.. What are your thoughts on the classes you've had so far?" She asked then.

"I-Is it normal that we learn spells without been taught how those spells actually work? Even in Transfiguration we've only been given a formula that describes what influences the change and to what extent. Not a word was said about how Magic makes this change happen in the first place. And I refuse to believe that it is too mysterious to be described with a few equations." Harry 'ranted'. At least for him, the classes that taught wizarding magics would've made much more sense if the teachers just gave the equations that made the spells work. After all, if Belkan and Eclipse Magic could all be described with mathematics, why would this one be radically different from them?.. His 'rant' seemed to have caught professor Sprout a bit off-guard.

"Ahm… Well…" The Herbology professor began after a few moments of silence. "There is a branch of magical studies, Arithmancy, which deals with the magical properties of numbers and their various applications. Including spellcrafting. It is a complicated discipline and while certainly useful, it is not something that is necessary to learn magic. If you're interested in how the spells you're taught in your classes work, Mr. Potter, you can sign up for the Arithmancy elective class in your third year." She said, causing the young Eclipse Driver to let out a sigh: how could one think that the understanding of how things actually worked might be unnecessary?

Still, professor Sprout did say that wizarding spellcrafting relied on Arithmancy so, perhaps, he should look into that. He was sure that with Zero's help he would be able to find the equations for the spells he was taught in his classes and, hopefully, knowing these equations would make the spells much easier for him to cast properly...

And while Harry was still deep in his thoughts about this Arithmancy and its possible uses to him, the Herbology Mistress decided to break the silence that filled her office:

"Alright… Is there anything that troubles you, Mr. Potter? Perhaps, there are questions that you'd like to ask me?" She asked, having apparently run out of other questions. Harry stayed quiet for a few moments, before shaking his head. Well, there actually were a few things he probably should've asked his head of the house, but didn't because he wasn't sure how she'd react to him bringing his condition and the associated problems up. "Well then,.." Professor Sprout continued. "If you need anything, my doors are always open for you, Mr, Potter." Nodding her a polite 'thank you', the green-eyed youth wasted no time in vacating the room...

* * *

As the door closed behind Mr. Potter, the head of the Hufflepuff house let out a sigh. This meeting didn't go quite as well as she had hoped. The young man was just so guarded, and she couldn't see an easy way to get him to open up and let her - or other members of the staff - help with whatever problems that were clearly troubling him. Hopefully, though, whatever his problems were, they wouldn't cause any real troubles for Mr. Potter himself, her little badgers or the rest of the school.

Letting out a small sigh, the witch picked a piece of parchment and wrote her observations of the boy down, making a special note of how Mr. Potter exhibited some signs of having suffered through prolonged neglect and ostracism in the past. Yes, he did well in trying to hide those, but it wasn't good enough to fool her. Still, Pomona knew that forcing a child to talk about the dark things about their past was not a good idea, and so she let Mr. Potter be until he was ready to confide in her. Nevertheless, both Madam Pomfrey and Headmaster Dumbledore needed to know about it.

Once she was done with taking her notes on Mr. Potter, the Herbology mistress drew her wand and pressed its tip against the Hufflepuff sigil on her table, pushed a little bit of her Magic into it.

"Mr. Truman, would you please tell Mr. Finch-Fletchey to come to my office?" She said into the magical intercom that one of her predecessors installed a century or so ago.

 **~/ *** \~**

Draco Malfoy paced back and forth inside the Slytherin common room. He'd been trying hard to come up with a cunning plan to pay that Potter bastard back for humiliating him on the Hogwarts Express and show him his place in the magical world, yet no ideas good enough came to his mind. And this frustrated him greatly. Really, how hard can it be to think up a way to teach that son of a mudblood whore a lesson about respecting his betters?

"Malfoy!" One of the older students snapped. "I swear, if you don't stop scurrying in front of me, I'll curse you into the next week, your father be damned." While Draco was certainly scared by this threat - not that he would ever admit it - it also finally gave him a good idea on how he could get back at Potter.

"Say, Flint." The blonde boy spoke up, doing his best to ignore the glare the older wizard was sending his way. "Don't you think that Potter is being too arrogant? That stupid half-blood is nothing but a waste of magic - why else would the Hat place him with the Duffers? - yet he behaves like he so above everyone else! We need to bring that bastard down and show him where he belongs in this world; under out heels."

"Do I look like a thug for hire to you, Malfoy?" Marcus asked angrily. He might not be the smartest wizard around, but even he could see right through Draco's words: the little bastard was simply looking for someone who'd do the dirty work for him.

"No, of course not." The blond boy tried to save his hide. "But don't you think that we, those sorted into the noble house of Slytherin, are the ones who should be preserving the righteous order of things?" Receiving a grunt that sounded like an agreement, he continued: "And while I would be honored to be the one to put Potter in his place, I'm afraid I might not be right person to make this lesson hard to forget. You, on the other hand, should have no trouble teaching that bastard what happens to those who think too highly of themselves and don't recognize their betters." Flint eyed him for a few moments before giving a resigned sigh.

"Fine." The older Slytherin grunted. "But you'll owe me quite a bit for this, Malfoy." Nodding, Draco turned around and walked away, gleefully imagining the terrible fate that would soon befall Potter. No one ever humiliated Malfoys and got away with it!

 **~/ *** \~**

"And there he is!" Draco told his hired muscle… err… his trusted ally as he finally spotted the loathsome Potter standing further off from the crowd of the first-year Duffers. "Let's teach this half-blood bastard a lesson about respecting one's betters." Letting out an unintelligible grunt of acknowledgment, Marcus Flint drew his trusty wand and began to stealthily approach his prey. He was going to strike fast and strike hard, giving the abhorrent brat no change to defend himself.

As for what spells he planned to use… well, while he would certainly enjoy sending Potter to the Hospital Wing, humiliating him was the primary objective, and the **Slugulus Eructo** charm was the perfect piece of magic for the job. Grinning nastily, Flint whispered the curse's incantation under his breath before sending a bolt of green-colored magic at the unsuspecting Hufflepuff.

For a brief moment it looked like everything would go according to his plan, but then something unexpected happened. Just as his curse got close to Potter, it suddenly started withering rapidly and soon disappeared completely without ever striking the filthy half-blood. Thinking that this could've been a result of some mistake he unknowingly made when sub-vocalizing the incantation for his curse, Marcus tried again. And he got about the same result: his spell just ...disappeared almost as soon as it got within a few feet from the Potter brat. What was even worse, Potter now knew that he was targeted...

* * *

Harry wasn't having a good afternoon. It first began when professor McGonagall didn't dismiss the class until she was done with her lecture - which was good ten minutes after the bell rang. Due to this he was 'late' to lunch and some older 'Puffs occupied 'his' spot at the end of the house table, forcing him to sit with his annoying peers instead. And now he had to wait for professor Quirrell to open the DADA classroom, once again enduring the bothersome company of his loud and immature classmates…

At least he had Zero to keep his mind occupied with some pleasant discussions… Alas, even that didn't last: just as his ever-faithful companion was telling him about some traditions of the Ancient Belka that she knew of, the green-eyed Eclipse Driver felt something drain a little bit of his mana.

「 _An incoming spell of some sort was destroyed by your anti-magic aura. It appears that you're being attacked, master._ 」 The Strosek girl informed helpfully. Just a moment passed and another spell dissipated into nothingness under the suffocating might of the Eclipse Factor. So, some bastard indeed dared to attack him… Unforgivable! In an instant, overwhelming anger took over Harry, encasing him in a pillar of ethereal-purple 'fire' while waves of his killing intent flooded the entire corridor, freezing everyone in their places.

Not giving his attacker a chance to recover and hightail, the green-eyed Potter moved in front of him and made him double over with a devastating punch to his gut. Then, without wasting a single moment, he grabbed the Slytherin bastard by the collar of his robes and smashed him into the nearby wall with enough force to lightly crack the stone and give the older boy a concussion… This development seemed to break the people around from their killing intent-induced stupor as multiple cries rose around. Harry however cared not about that; right now all that mattered to him was his vengeance.

"I'm going to fucking rip you apart, piece by _fucking piece_." He hissed while forming a metal gauntlet around his free arm, further scaring the older boy. Said bastard immediately redoubled his efforts to free himself, but there wasn't anything he could really do against an angry and determined Eclipse Driver, so he remained pinned to the wall and with no way to avert his untimely doom.

"S-Stop!" Someone shouted in their best attempt to sound authoritative. Harry, however, had no desire to listen to that voice and prepared to paint the wall with Slytherin's brains. "I said, _**stop it**_!" The speaker repeated much more forcefully, while also shooting a red beam of Magic from his wand. The spell, of course, failed to penetrate the anti-magic aura surrounding the young Potter, yet it still achieved its purpose by drawing his attention away from the unfortunate bastard he was about to do in...

Turning his head to look at whoever dared to raise a wand against him now, he saw that it actually was professor Quirrell. And, for once, the turban-wearing man actually looked the part of a powerful and dependable wizard he was supposed to be instead of a stuttering and quivering mess he usually was… Not that it meant much to Harry consumed as he was by his rage.

"Mr. Potter! Let Mr. Flint go." The DADA professor demanded, his wand trained on the green-eyed Driver and a spell of some sort forming a glowing ball of red light on its tip. He received but a growl in response to his 'request', but that didn't do anything to discourage him. "I said, let. Him. Go." He repeated, staring Harry down like one would do with a wild beast.

The green-eyed mage stared back, engaging the man in a contest of will. Which, to his surprise, wasn't something that he could easily win. And while his anger still burned hot like a Sun, this pause in action was enough to clear his mind from the blood-red fog of his rage a little.

"No." Harry growled lowly. Then, seeing as Quirrell didn't look like he was pleased with that response, he added: "This bastard tried to kill me. I'll destroy him." This, apparently, wasn't something that the turban-wearing professor expected to hear. His surprise, though, didn't last long as he quickly got his wits back.

"Are you absolutely certain about that, Mr. Potter?" He asked, his wand still at ready. "I find it hard to believe that someone would do that."

"It was a prank! Just a prank!" Flint cried out, believing this as his best chance to save himself from the green-eyed _monster_. He also resumed his efforts to free himself from Harry's vise-like grip, but met no success there.

"You attacked me from behind." The Potter youth countered, his voice low and dangerous. "Sounds more like an assassination attempt to me." Making a short pause to take a breath, he added: "And since you intended to use lethal force against me, I have every right to respond in kind."

"Now, now, Mr. Potter, I find it hard to believe that someone here wants to kill you. This all is just a big misunderstanding. So, please, let Mr. Flint go." Professor Quirrell said while Marcus nodded eagerly. Harry let out a deep sigh: things kept stacking against him and while he could still continue with his original course of action, it would now bring him way more problems than it would be worth.

"Fine." He grumbled, before releasing the older boy - but not before slamming him into the wall again to make sure he learned his lesson about raising a wand against him. "A word of warning: next time I won't stop." Harry growled while showing Marcus his armor-covered fist.

"Mr. Potter!" Quirrell exclaimed. He quickly deflated under the cold stare from the said youth, however… Still he needed to do something and so, letting out a cough, the turban-wearing professor continued: "Now then… Mr. Flint, you've been a student here for a few years, yet you seem to forget that no magic is allowed in the corridors outside of the emergencies that are clearly defined in the school's charter. Let's see if losing Slytherin fifteen points will improve your memory? And, you'll also be serving a detention with me this evening. Please don't forget to change your pants till then." This last bit raised a few laughs from the gathered crowd. Meanwhile, Quirrell continued: "Mr. Potter, while you certainly have your right for self-defense, you've gone way further than the situation called far. Twenty five points will be taken from Hufflepuff for your lack of restraint, and you'll have to serve a week of detentions with Mr. Filch." The Hogwarts' only Eclipse Driver let out an unintelligible sound that showed the extent of his disagreement with his decision. Nevertheless, he nodded in agreement, having figured that doing anything else would only make this all more troublesome.

Of course, just because he agreed to let the Slytherin bastard be, Harry's fury didn't magically disappear. It was still there, burning hot as ever within him and demanding quick release. He needed to do something about it and fast, lest he completely lost himself to his anger and started slaughtering the people around him indiscriminately… Walking up to the nearest window, the green-eyed mage forced it open. Then he jumped onto the windowsill.

"What are you doing, Mr. Potter?" Professor Quirrell asked.

"I need to cool off so I'm leaving." Was the response he got from the young Eclipse Driver, who leaped out of the window a moment later. Immediately, everyone looked out of the windows, hoping to see what happened to the frighteningly violent Potter. Much to their surprise, he appeared to be completely unphased by a twenty foot drop and was already speeding out of sight, moving faster than should be humanly possible.

"...That w-would be another five points from Hufflepuff, for s-skipping one's c-classes." The turban-wearing professor announced after a few seconds of stunned silence. "Now e-everyone, please get into the classroom. The lesson is ab-bout to start." He then called, reminding the young 'Puffs and 'Claws that they still had a DADA lesson to sit through...

 **~/ *** \~**

While his questionably-useful host was busy teaching his class, Lord Voldemort occupied himself with thinking over the facts about the Potter brat he learned today. And, based on what he saw, it looked like the boy could somehow neutralize spells aimed at him. That was very powerful defense, as well as the one that could have caused his killing curse to fail catastrophically all those years ago. Was this the ' _power he knew not_ ' spoken about in the prophecy? Whatever the case might be, though, dealing with a person capable of canceling spells would be quite troublesome….

Of course, such protection against Magic would do nothing against physical attacks, but… What self-respecting Magic user would even lower himself to fighting in melee? That was what dirty muggles and worthless blood-traitors did to even the odds. A true wizard could always use his Magic to make the lesser beings do what he needs to be done.

And he, Lord Voldemort, was a true wizard, the Greatest One! So, of course, he had no troubles charming whoever he wanted to do his binding. His **Imperio** curse was rightfully feared as something only a select few people could fight off. He might not need even that, though, thanks to his current host's special talent: Quirinius Quirrell could communicate with and command trolls. The only issue with that laid in how to get the troll and Potter together and not have the Old Fool or his people interfere..

* * *

That's all, folks!  
 **Read** and **Review**!


	9. Of Detentions and Flying

And here's the ninth chapter for your enjoyment, folks!

 *** Review Response**:  
 **alphagates** , Australian rabbits won't be harmed. But there _will_ be blood: this is an MRLN:FORCE story with an Eclipse Driver as a protagonist.  
 **lordamnesia** , **KazuSakai** , **Guest** , **jamnaz79** , thank you for your reviews, folks!  
 **ultima-owner** , some idiots, though, believe themselves to be above needing to follow this cardinal rule.  
 **saske92ii** , spell matrices that are bound to a solid or liquid medium are more resistant to the Eclipse's Anti-Magic Field. They will, of course, get broken completely if they remain inside of the AMF for long enough, but brief exposures will only weaken them, maybe not even permanently.  
 **raigalcc** , it won't be quite a gunblade, but Harry will get a Divider once he visits Mid-Childa next summer. Until then, it's just a knife and fists for Harry - while he can cast wizarding spells, the efforts needed make it impossible for him to use them effectively in a fight.  
 **Duel** (guest), Harry won't have a run in with the centaurs yet, but it _will_ happen eventually. As for Voldie's plans, they are going to get ...adjusted.

* * *

 **Disclaimer** : " ** _Harry Potter_** " and " _ **Mahou Shoujou Lyrical Nanoha**_ " belong to their respective owners. No profit is being made. The same goes for any other media that might be used as the sources of ideas and inspiration.

"speaking"  
" _telepathy_ "  
「 _Devices speaking_ 」  
' _thinking_ '  
" **spells** "

Additional **Disclaimer** : The authors of this story **in no way approve** murder as a solution to interpersonal conflicts.

* * *

 **Power of Eclipse  
Chapter IX** **: Of Detentions and Flying**

By the time Harry returned to the castle after his little spider-hunt to cool his anger off, everyone have already heard - no thanks to the Hogwarts rumor mill - about what had happened between him and that Slytherin bastard, Flint or whatever his name was. These, often exaggerated, stories instilled quite a fear of him into the student body, leading to them moving out of his path wherever he went. And while Harry had to admit that the people giving him wide berth was kinda nice, the theatrical way they expressed their fear of him was so damn annoying...

As for professor Sprout, well… The head of Hufflepuff house was certainly not happy with him, both because he nearly killed another student and because he lost her house a lot of points, but since he was already punished for that incident, the most she could do was read him a bothersome lecture about violence not being a solution… As if!

The other professors too weren't happy with him at the moment, especially the headmaster, who was an old fool who believed into giving people second chances a little bit too strongly for his own good. What really surprised Harry, though, was the fact that Snape seemed to be pretty chill about this whole mess. Of course, the Potions Master was far from being okay with one of his Snakes nearly losing his life, but, at least, he seemed to understand that the bastard brought this upon himself by firing the first spell.

~/ *** \~

Arriving late to detention was probably not the best idea, but he rightly didn't care given that his anger was _still_ simmering from earlier, even if it was barely there. He didn't know by how much he was late, only that by the time he arrived he was met by an irate… someone with a balding head outside the door he was supposed to go into. "At last, the elusive Mr. Potter has decided to deign me with his appearance." The man sneered at him.

 _Great_ , his anger was already coming back, not even five seconds after meeting the bastard. Gritting his teeth, Harry did his best to suppress his annoyance and silently followed the man into the room, barely taking note of his surroundings before being sat down at a creaky little desk while the man went behind his own desk and looked over a slip of paper. "Well, well. A troublemaker, and a violent one at that."

A cat, some scrawny, dust-covered… or colored thing, jumped up onto the table shortly after the man finished speaking, briefly looking at him before trotting her way over to her owner. Said man lowered the slip of paper and proceeded to stroke the cat before talking to it as if it was going to give a reply to him. "What's a good punishment for him Mrs. Norris? Should we hang him from the ceiling and lash him across the back, or would you think just hanging him by his ankles is enough?"

Harry glared nastily back at the man, not in the least liking how either of those suggestions sounded. "Touch me and I will rearrange your face so much that the devil himself won't recognize you." Filch chuckled, giving Harry an unimpressed look.

"Oh, I'm so scared of the little Wizard's threatening spells and ego, use any of that magic of yours and you'll be worse off than my threats, you little piece of shit."

"Spells? Why would I use something so fickle when simply tearing your throat out is so much easier?" Harry growled dangerously in response.

For a few moments they glared daggers at each other, until Filch unexpectedly broke into less-than-sane laughter, making the young Potter's anger give way to confusion. "You have balls, brat. Threatening to hurt a member of the staff is grounds for expulsion, but I just like how you hate all those fancy spells." He said once he finished laughing. "Consider yourself lucky, I'll only have you mop a castle's wing instead. Every night, until your detentions are over. Now get to work, Mingebag, before I change my mind."

~/ *** \~

It was near the end of the second day of his detentions when the young Potter finally decided to ask the question that has been bothering him for awhile now:

"Hey, old bastard, why are you working at Hogwarts if you hate everyone here?" He asked Mr. Filch, who was overseeing him polishing the marble floor in one of the Hogwarts' many halls. Normally, the grumpy caretaker would've condemned whichever brat that decided to ask him such a question to yet another day of hard manual work, but, for some reason, he decided to humor this little shit:

"Because this is about the only place willing to hire me and pay me decent galleons." Harry raised an eyebrow. Sure, Mr. Filch wasn't the most pleasant company, but… there had to be another reason why he had troubles finding decent job. But before he could ask another question, the man barked at him: "Now stop slacking and get back to work. These floors won't polish themselves." The next couple of minutes was spent in almost complete silence. Then, Harry broke this silence with a question:

"Is that because… you can't use Magic the same way the other wizards can?" From what he has seen of the wizarding society so far, it looked like these bigots rejected anyone they perceived as 'different', cutting their rights and possibilities down. Not being able to use the same Magic as them would certainly make one 'different' in their eyes... And as he took a glance at Mr. Filch's face, Harry saw that his guess was spot on.

"I am… a squib." The Hogwarts' caretaker admitted: he knew he got caught, so there was no point in trying to deny it. That said, he was going to do his best to keep his secret from the castle's general populace. "Tell anyone about this, and I will skin you alive, shitstain." Somehow, he actually managed to look truly intimidating to the young Eclipse Driver for a moment.

"A squib?" The green-eyed Potter asked. He had heard the people use this word a few times, but he hasn't bothered trying to find out what it actually meant.

"I can't use Magic, alright." Mr. Filch clarified.

"I see... I'll keep my mouth shut about it." Harry said with a shrug. He honestly didn't care much about this. After all, should he ever have the need to destroy the old bastard, physical assault would be the way to do it, not… blackmail. There was moment of silence, before the green-eyed youth spoke again: "But, you know, wizarding Magic doesn't work well for me either." This made the Hogwarts' caretaker raise an eyebrow.

"What are you talking about, brat? You got a letter, didn't you? Of course you can cast spells."

"Perhaps." The Eclipse Driver agreed. "But I'm still really terrible at it. I might have the raw power..." Just to make the point, he called forth his mana, making an Eclipse circle appear under his feet for a couple of seconds before vanishing. "But my Magic is geared towards an entirely different methodology."

Filch, meanwhile, was staring at the spot Harry's magical circle occupied moments ago. He was old enough to remember the times when simpler rituals were still taught as a part of the NEWT-level Ancient Runes course. And, having cleaned more than few of half-finished or even used runic circles the students drew in unused classrooms, he could easily tell that whatever the boy in front of him had just summoned was something entirely different: it was much more detailed and its ...aesthetics were completely different. And, most importantly, that Magical circle was constructed with nothing but raw magical energy, no symbols drawn in chalk or anything like that. It was like his very Magic was alien…

That was when a thought occurred to the old caretaker:

"Hey, brat." He called. "Do you think I might be a bit like you? Maybe I can't use wand because my Magic is different, like yours?" Sure, even if this wishful thinking somehow turned out to be the truth, he'd still wouldn't be recognized as a proper wizard. But, at least, he wouldn't be just a powerless, useless muggle born into a magical family anymore…

"Even if it is so, it's too late now." The green-eyed troublemaker replied. "The Linker Core - the source of the Magical energy within a living body - it's a bit like muscles, I guess. If don't use it, it degenerates and, eventually, it gets too set to improve and grow stronger anymore. If you don't start training in Magic by twenty five or so, then, no matter what you do later, you will get no noticeable results no matter how hard you try… At least, that's what my ...mentor says."

"I see..." Mr. Filch breathed out. "It was worth a shot, though." There was a pretty long pause, before he, seemingly back to his usual self, barked an order at Harry: "Now stop lazing around, mingebag. You still have the floors of the Entrance Hall to polish tonight."

~/ *** \~

The next day Harry finally got around to paying the Hogwarts library a visit. And the place certainly lived up to its reputation: countless tomes about everything magical that was known to the wizardkind were put rather haphazardly on hundreds of tall bookshelves. Thankfully for the green-eyed Eclipse Driver, each of those shelves had a very helpful sign telling him books on which subjects he could find there. Thus, the only 'problem' he encountered while looking for the beginner-level Arithmancy textbooks were annoying fearfully-curious looks other students present in the library were shooting at him. Taking those textbooks out, however, was an entirely different matter…

"I believe these books are a little too advanced for you, y-young man." Madam Pince, the librarian, said, doing her best to sound perfectly-authoritative, but unable to completely hide her fear - it was quite obvious that she'd heard of and been 'impressed' by the way he dealt with Flint... Harry gave the witch a flat look in response, silently telling her that he cared not what she thought; he wanted these books and she was going to sign them out for him. "Fine." Madam Pince said with a heavy sigh as she took the first book from his hands and began checking it out. "Are you sure you can handle this?" She asked with her voice clearly conveying that she didn't believe that he could.

"Yes." Was all that he grumbled in response.

"Well then, I expect you to treat these books with utmost respect and care, mister." Madam Pince continued, once again faking her confidence. "And if you don't, so help me, I'll make you regret it." Normally she wouldn't threaten a student like this, but with someone as troublesome as this brat, she felt it was well-warranted. She received another flat look for her 'trouble'.

"Okay." Harry told her, making it quite clear that he wasn't at all impressed by that threat and was playing along only to get her out of his hair faster. Still, since all formalities have been observed, Madam Pince had no reason to keep the books from him any longer. And the young-but-notorious Hufflepuff had no desire to spend any more time in her company either, so he took the textbooks and quickly left the library...

As he was walking back to the Hufflepuff dormitories, Harry reached his loyal Strosek:

" _Zero, I have the Arithmancy books._ " He 'said'. " _Are you ready to start studying them?_ "

「 _This unit is ready at any time._ 」 She replied before asking: 「 _Would you like this unit to begin now?_ 」 Harry shook his head.

" _No, we shall wait until tonight._ " And even though the Strosek-girl behaved like a machine more often than not, Harry had no trouble telling that she was surprised by this declaration. Thus, he decided to elaborate: " _You will need to be outside to study these textbooks, and I don't want you to be found by others. I'd rather you remain a secret._ "

「 _Understood._ 」 Zero said.

* * *

Since he indeed wanted to keep others from learning about Zero, Harry had to wait until all of his dorm-mates fell asleep before retiring himself. It was quite a long wait, especially since there wasn't much he could while sitting on his bed in a barely-lit with moonlight room… Eventually, though, the other boys all fell asleep and he was free to summon his pretty helper.

Making sure that the drapes of his bed were shut tight to prevent the little light show that was about to happen from waking anyone up, Harry commanded Zero to manifest herself back into the real world. And once the amber-eyed girl did that, he handed her the Arithmancy textbooks he checked out of the library earlier today.

"Here." He said simply, receiving a nod in response from her.

「 _This unit will now proceed with studying the methodology of Magic described within these books._ 」 She said as she knelt down on the bed, resting her pert butt on her her heels. There was a brief pause, before she made a request: 「 _Permission to summon a source of light?_ 」 Indeed, the bed's thick drapes created an almost complete darkness, making it impossible to read anything…

"Of course." Harry replied, seeing no problem with this: indeed, if Zero's reappearance didn't wake anyone up, a small ball of light wouldn't either. The Strosek girl gave him a nod, before summoning a small ball of pale-blue light that hovered in the air slightly above her head. Then she opened the textbook from the top of the stack and began reading…

Not wishing to just sit there doing nothing, the green-eyed Driver picked a book himself and tried to read it. However, its author apparently was a relative of the ghost that pretended to be the History of Magic professor - there was no other way to explain why it was mind-numbingly boring. And despite his interest in the mathematics used to describe wizarding spells, Harry quickly found himself fighting hard not to fall asleep. And this was a battle that he was losing badly… His last thought before finally nodding off was that Zero truly was a godsend for him as without her around he wouldn't have managed to get a quarter of the things he had now...

* * *

Ernie Macmillan wasn't sure what woke him up at this ungodly hour in the middle of the night, but something did and now he was lying on his bed, trying to go back to sleep. He wasn't having much success with that, though… Eventually, the young Hufflepuff decided to go get himself a glass of water from the common room. And so, the stout-looking blonde got out of his bed and trudged his way out of the room.

Some ten minutes later he returned, and now that he was looking at the dorm room from a different perspective, he finally noticed something unusual was happening. Indeed, he could see a clearly-magical source of light being used behind the drapes of the Potter's bed. And while said drapes made it quite hard to see what exactly was going on there clearly, Ernie could still make out a silhouette of someone sitting on his scary dorm-mate's bed, apparently reading something. What's more, this silhouette belonged not to Potter himself, but to someone like a girl instead! What in Merlin's name was going on here?!

His curiosity getting the better of him, the young Mr. Macmillan tried to carefully approach Potter's bed, perhaps hoping that it'd let him somehow better see who Potter's unexpected guest was… Alas, he didn't manage to make it very far before he stumbled into someone's school bag left carelessly on the floor. The resulting noise, while certainly not loud enough to wake those who were already asleep, definitely alerted the mysterious girl about his presence. And, indeed, she stiffened for a brief moment, before canceling her lighting spell and disappearing into darkness.

Ernie himself was frozen with fear, expecting Potter to get up and attack him at any moment: there was no telling what was going on in that barbarian's head and what might set his explosive temper off… It took the blonde Hufflepuff several minutes - though to him it felt like hours - to finally realize that he wasn't going to die horribly right now. Thanking Merlin for small mercies, he turned around and sneaked back into his bed, moving as quickly and quietly as he possibly could.

After such an adventure, though, he wasn't going back to sleep anytime soon… Many questions plagued Ernie's mind, and the greatest of them all was the identity of that girl on Potter's bed. Who was brave enough - or insane enough - to get even remotely close to that ill-tempered brute? And how did she even get there without anyone noticing her?

Ernie briefly entertained the thought of telling his dorm-mates about this girl in hopes that they might be able to shed some light on this mystery, but quickly dismissed this idea. The Hogwarts rumor mill was scarily effective, and if he told anyone about his 'adventures' tonight, the chances were the entire school would know about it by the end of the day. And that included Potter. Ernie had no desire to become a victim of the boy's wrath…

Eventually, the adrenaline wore off and the young Hufflepuff was reminded of how tired he actually was. Perhaps, it'd be for the best if he rested now and thought about what he should do about his 'encounter' earlier tonight in the morning? Yes, Ernie decided as he let out a massive yawn, that sounded like a good idea. And so, he made himself comfortable in his bed, closed his eyes and fell into uneasy sleep...

* * *

When Harry woke up early the next morning, he was still lying across his bed the same way he did when he fell asleep. One thing was different though: there now was a blanket thrown over him that hadn't been there before. Raising his head, the green-eyed boy glanced towards Zero, who was still reading dutifully through an Arithmancy textbook - a different one from before, though - seemingly paying no attention to anything but the text in front of her eyes.

"Zero." He called as he set up on his bed. "It's morning already." Indeed, while the dorm room was still dark, the first rays of the morning sun were now reaching into it through its magical windows. "You should stop for now." He said then.

「 _Understood._ 」 The silver-haired Strosek replied, before extinguishing her magical light. She then closed the textbook she was reading and placed it together with the other Arithmancy texts. There was a small period of silence, before her master spoke again:

"I see that you've finished one of the textbooks already." Harry said frankly. "Were you able to learn anything useful from them?"

「 _This unit was able to finish one textbook and read through 117 pages of the second one._ 」 Zero replied. 「 _Information gathered so far points towards the spells used by 'wizards' being based on a formulaic language that differs significantly from those used under Mid-Childan, Belkan or Eclipse magical systems. Furthermore, the spell matrices for 'wizarding' spells are actualized through a 'wand' item that is not a form of a Magical Terminal under TSAB classification. A significant number of spells are also dependent on the intent or emotional state of the caster and won't function properly without such input. Automation of spellcasting for these spells doesn't appear to be feasible but minor optimization should be possible._ 」 Harry let out a sigh: if he understood what Zero has just said right, there was little she could actually do to help with casting wizarding spells. Still, some help, no matter how insignificant, was better than nothing at all - especially when dealing with something as frustrating as wizarding spells - so there was no way he'd ignore her unspoken offer of assistance.

"Should I return the books to the library then?" Harry asked. "Or do you believe there might still be something helpful hidden inside them?" The Strosek-girl was silent for a few moments before giving him her answer:

「 _This unit believes that it would be reasonable to finish all of the available texts before returning them to the library._ 」 Zero said. After a moment she elaborated: 「 _While it doesn't appear that the knowledge in these books will be of much use directly, some techniques described in there might be applicable to the Eclipse Magic._ 」 The green-eyed youth paused to think about it for a few seconds, before agreeing with the presented argument.

"Very well." Harry was about to say something else, but the sound of his dorm mate's alarm clock going off interrupted him. The others were getting up now, and thus it was no longer safe for Zero to remain outside of him. "...It looks like your time is up for now, Zero. You can continue studying the textbooks tonight." He said. "For now, though, it'd be better if you merged back into me." She gave him a nod, before turning into an incorporeal 'ghost' and flowing back into her master's body.

Letting out a small sigh, Harry pulled the drapes of his bed open and picked the black heap that was his school robes from the top of his trunk. As he put them on grudgingly - really, why couldn't Hogwarts have something that was a bit more comfortable and didn't look like a dress as its uniform? - he felt someone's eyes on him. Turning around he saw that one of his dorm mates, a boy who went by the name of Ernest Macmillan, was indeed eyeing him with curiosity and even some suspicion…

No, Harry quickly corrected himself, that boy wasn't watching him; his attention was - for some reason - on his bed. Why he was doing that, the young Eclipse Driver didn't know and didn't particularly care. Still, it was quite annoying. So he let out a low growl, scaring the blond Hufflepuff into looking away and pretending that there was something extremely interesting about his own robes… Shrugging, Harry quickly finished dressing and left the room - breakfast was about to be served, and he was rather hungry.

~/ *** \~

By the end of the week people finally got tired of endlessly rehashing the story of Harry's 'attack' on Marcus Flint and found other things to talk about. Primarily flying and Quidditch. Not that this was exactly surprising as tryouts for the Quidditch teams were now underway and flying lessons for the first years would be starting on Wednesday next week.

At first, Harry too was looking forward to these lessons as he hoped that they might help him improved his flying spell. Alas, those hopes were cruelly dashed when he learned that the flying lessons were entirely practical and no one would explain to him how the enchantments that let the broomsticks fly actually worked.

Still, this class was a mandatory one, and skipping it wouldn't be worth the troubles. Thus, on Wednesday afternoon Harry reluctantly joined his Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw year-mates on a grassy lawn in front of the castle. And as they waited for the first flying lesson to begin, the young Potter kept shooting glances at the broomsticks lying in neat lines on the ground: they all were old and had twigs sticking at odd angles from them. A few even looked like they could come apart if someone touched them carelessly...

"Well, what are you all waiting for?" The flying instructor - an old but quite fit witch with short gray hair and yellow hawk-like eyes - barked as soon as she entered the field. "Everyone stand by a broomstick." With an indifferent shrug Harry moved to stand by the closest broom. "Come on, hurry up." The instructor hurried his classmates, some of whom were 'fighting' among themselves for the right to use the better broomsticks. Once everyone picked a broom, the witch - Madam Hooch was her name - continued: "Stick out your right hand over your broom, and say 'Up!"" She said.

Almost immediately, the students started shouting 'up!' discordantly in hopes of getting the brooms jump into their hands. Only a couple of them succeeded, though. A significant number of the broom didn't move at all, while the rest rolled around on the ground or moved in other similarly-strange ways… Feeling the instructor's eyes on him, Harry let out a sigh and put out his hand over 'his' broomstick.

"Up!" He called. Nothing happened. "Up!" He repeated more forcefully. The results, however, were much the same: the broom absolutely refused to move for him. Letting out another sigh, he redoubled his efforts to suppress his Eclipse Factor and tried again. "Up!" This time he managed to get a tiny twitch out of the antiquated broom. Which, apparently, was good enough for Madam Hooch, since she moved on to 'help' the other students.

Once everyone managed to make their broom respond in some way to their commands, the lesson moved onto the next topic. Which was the right way to mount the broomstick without sliding off the end. Which, in Harry's opinion, wasn't very comfortable and quickly solidified his impression on the brooms being a terrible mode of magical transportation. He didn't voice his thoughts, though, as he had no desire to serve any stupid detentions for nothing more than being in a disagreement with a professor…

The final part of the lesson was, of course, trying to fly the broomsticks. And here the young Eclipse Driver came across a very big problem. To pass this course he needed to successfully fly a broom, yet the one he had right now still refused to produce anything more than a little twitch no matter how hard he tried to suppress his anti-magic aura. Well… If the honest and straight-forward approach didn't work, it was the time to cheat.

So, once Madam Hooch blew her whistle and his classmates began taking off, the green-eyed Potter completely released his control over his anti-magic aura and raised himself into the air using his Eclipse magic while doing his best to pretend that it was actually the useless piece of wood between his legs that kept him in the air.

Everyone then had to do a few relatively-simple drills - like flying through a series of glowing loops - something that Harry could do reasonably well despite not being that good at flying. At least he thought that he did quite well during that task... Madam Hooch was in the process of setting up a more difficult tests for her students, when the bell rang.

"Mr. Potter, please stay behind." The flying instructor said just as Harry was about to leave the area along with his classmates. Letting out a sigh, he turned around and walked back to where Madam Hooch was standing, using her own broomstick like a staff. "Mr. Potter." The witch continued when the other students left the immediate area. "The purpose of my class is to teach the young wizards and witches to fly a broom. Why were you not doing that?" Harry was about to protest, but Madam Hooch didn't give him a chance: "You can't fool my eyes, Mr. Potter. Others might have not noticed it, but you weren't flying your broomstick. You were flying while dragging your broom along for the ride instead. Explain yourself."

Seeing as bullshitting his way out of this way was not an option, Harry decided that he might as well tell his professor the truth. A part of it, at any rate.

"That's the only way for me to fly. More or less." He replied.

"What do you mean, Mr. Potter?" Madam Hooch asked, curious about how that could be. After all, there was no witch or wizard who couldn't fly on a broom!

"As you've probably heard, I have an ...aura of sorts that destroys spells that get too close." The green-eyed youth tried to explain. Ignoring a nod from the professor, he continued: "This aura also works on enchantments, though, they are less susceptible to its effects. The brooms,.." Harry then said, while gesturing towards the broomsticks lying on the grass. "They are old and their enchantments have worn out. They are little more than elaborate pieces of woodwork when in my hands."

"And what about newer broomsticks?" Madam Hooch asked. "Will they similarly fail to work for you?" She also made a mental note to try yet another time to get the funds to upgrade the brooms used for her class - some of them have been in use for decades and, indeed, should be replaced with something better.

"A new broomstick with strong enchantments would probably work for me, for a short while." Harry replied. "And even then, anything beyond the simplest and sturdiest of enchantments will likely fail almost right away… So, yeah, flying on my own is the only way for me to be in the air."

"I see..." The flying instructor said. After a few seconds of silence, Madam Hooch asked: "And how well can you fly with just your own Magic, Mr. Potter?"

"What you saw today was pretty much the limit of what I can do." The young Eclipse Driver said.

"That is still quite impressive, Mr. Potter." Madam Hooch reassured him. "Unaided flight is a very rare skill, and those who possess it are all magicals of impressive power and experience." There was a brief pause before she continued: "Very well. If this is indeed like you say - and I don't have a reason to doubt it yet - then my course is indeed of little use to you, Mr. Potter. Perhaps, I should let you pass it over."

"That would be very welcome,.. Professor. Thank you." Harry replied, happy that he would have one less (annoying and useless to him) class to deal with.

* * *

That's all, folks!  
 **Read** and **Review**!


	10. React and Engage

And here's the tenth chapter for your enjoyment, folks!

 *** Review Response**:  
 **ultima-owner** , no, not really. But Filch still tolerates him way better than other students.  
 **lordamnesia** , **Jostanos** , **Ranmaleopard** , thank you for your reviews, folks!  
 **VentXekart** , Harry will (eventually) reveal Zero, but it wouldn't happen until a bit later.  
 **Darkscythe Drake** , Eclipse Factor is a biological agent (possibly, of Ancient Belkan or Al-Hazardian origins) that transforms mages into living weapons, known as "Drivers". Eclipse Drivers suffer from significantly increased lust for battle, possess very strong personal Anti-Magic Field and have access to special Magic System at the cost of more-or-less losing ability to use their original one. Also, pretty much every Eclipse Driver seen in FORCE is a selfish jerk. I've altered the canon Eclipse Factor to significantly reduce the effectiveness of its AMF, made it consume Driver's mana when canceling enemy spells and changed the condition for Eclipse Drivers to continue functioning normally from [ _kill someone once in a while_ ] to [ _have a fight against a strong opponent once in a while_ ]. As for the pairings... I do have something in mind, but it will have to wait for a while as Harry is a bit too young right now.

 *** AN**: Special thanks to my friend, **Skelekitty** , for beta-reading this chapter.

* * *

 **Disclaimer** : " ** _Harry Potter_** " and " _ **Mahou Shoujou Lyrical Nanoha**_ " belong to their respective owners. No profit is being made. The same goes for any other media that might be used as the sources of ideas and inspiration.

"speaking"  
" _telepathy_ "  
「 _Devices speaking_ 」  
' _thinking_ '  
" **spells** "

Additional **Disclaimer** : The authors of this story **in no way approve** murder as a solution to interpersonal conflicts.

* * *

 **Power of Eclipse  
Chapter X** **: React and Engage**

The next couple of weeks passed without anything really notable happening, at least as far as Harry was concerned. Of course, he was still feared by the school's populace but… Who cared about the idiots who couldn't realize that he wasn't some inhumane monster that attacks people without a provocation?

Onto the more important matters, Zero has finished reading through the basic Arithmancy textbooks he had checked out from the Hogwarts library and asked him for the more advanced texts on the subject. Harry didn't actually know exactly what the silver-haired Strosek was working on, but trusted her to tell him when she ready. Meanwhile, the young Eclipse Driver continued to go about his daily businesses, attending his classes and generally doing his best to stay out of trouble: detentions he'd serve otherwise would be too irritating and annoying.

And speaking of the classes he had to attend, they were still pretty damn boring. Not even in Charms or Defense Against the Dark Arts the professors showed any bits of Magic that Harry could consider 'interesting' or even useful… Then, one day in the early October, professor Quirrell decided that it was the time to move onto a topic infinitely more interesting than the basic and quite useless hexes:

"A-Alright, class." The stuttering professor began. "Over the past month, you h-have been introduced to the c-concept of personal Magical d-defense and learned some basic h-hexes that, nevertheless, might save your health or even your lives one d-day." A few people around the classroom snorted, apparently sharing Harry's doubts about actual usefulness of those spells. Ignoring them, the turban-wearing wizard continued: "But there are more dangers in t-the world around us than dark wizards and witches. Wild animals too c-can present a real danger to someone unprepared." Now, this sounded like an interesting topic, the green-eyed Eclipse Driver thought. "But, before we begin, let me announce t-the results of the the written test you've had the previous week." Professor Quirrell said as he picked a stack of parchments from his table.

Caring neither about his own results nor about those of his classmates, Harry simply tuned out the stuttering man as he announced the grades he had given for the test. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, he was almost done:

"And, f-finally, miss Susan Bones." Professor Quirrell said. "I wish, I could give you more than one 'Outstanding' f-for your test. You've done a fantastic job d-describing the defensive uses of various hexes. It was a pleasure to read your work."

"Thank you, Sir." The red-haired witch replied, blushing slightly under the praise she was given.

"I h-have a book discussing the suitability of low-level hexes and jinxes for competitive d-duelling somewhere in my collection. If you're interesting, I c-can lend it to you, Ms. Bones." The DADA professor offered.

"I'll be honored, Sir." Susan replied.

"Then p-please stop by my office after the classes." The turban-wearing man said. Then, after a small pause, he continued, now addressing the whole class: "Now then, let me give you a brief overview of w-what I will teach you over next few lessons. We're going to cover w-wargs, iron boars and golden-horned deers. And, if time allows, I'd like to give you a lecture on trolls."

"Trolls, sir?" One of the Ravenclaw students asked. "Aren't they very dangerous."

"An already-enraged t-troll is indeed a fearsome beast." Professor Quirrell confirmed. "B-but should you run into one that isn't, it is not t-that hard to avoid a confrontation with it: trolls are creatures intelligent enough not t-to rely on their animal instincts, yet stupid enough to easily fall for t-trickery."

"I see." The same Ravenclaw said. "Thank you for explaining this, professor."

"If there are no further questions, let us being." The turban-wearing wizard said. "And, today we will be talking about wargs, also known as g-great wolves. They are..." And so he went on to describe what wargs were, what were their differences from normal wolves, and what one should do in case of meeting one of those beasts. It was actually a pretty interesting lecture and Harry found himself wondering, whether there were some wargs somewhere in the Forbidden Forest: those giant spiders he hunted right now were good and all, but he needed some alternatives, especially since it looked like the spiders would be hibernating during the winter.

 **~/ *** \~**

Inspired by professor Quirrell's lectures about the wild beasts one can encounter in the magical areas, Harry spent the next couple of weeks exploring the Forbidden Forest beyond the domain of the arachnoid monstrosities he usually 'hunted' in. And while he had no luck with wargs, the green-eyed Eclipse Driver did run into an iron boar. The beast was every bit like what the turban-wearing professor said it would be. It was huge, had mean tusks and even meaner temper. Of course, a fight ensued.

And what a glorious fight it was! The boar was very strong and surprisingly fast and agile for its bulk. What's more, its hide - supposedly also Magic-resistant to a degree - and the layer of fat underneath it were thick enough to render Harry's trusted knife all but useless, forcing him to resort to some riskier tactics in order to put the beast down. Something easier said than done since the boar gave as good as it got and, if it wasn't for the Eclipse Factor and the powers it gave him, Harry was sure he would've bitten the dust several times. Exhilarating!

That iron boar was far from the only interesting beast the young Potter encountered in the dark depths of the Forbidden Forest. Indeed, the woods were home to many fascinating creatures. Like that strange hump-backed monstrosity with armor-like purplish-brown skin, tentacled mouth and a number of golden horns forming a crown around its ugly head. Or a tribe of miniature green-skinned long-nosed humanoids - individually they might've been rather pathetic, even if one took their primitive weapons into account, but fighting off a whole swarm of them was quite a challenge… And then there was a wandering herd of ashen-furred bipedal giants with long and sharp saber-like claws…

Those were just the most interesting of the beasts Harry had ran into so far. And he was yet to explore even a quarter of the Forbidden Forest! Yes, agreeing to come to Hogwarts was the right decision, even if he now had to deal with the annoying students and idiotic teachers: after all, where else in the world could he find such entertaining creatures to fight? Certainly not in the boring hellhole of Surrey.. The free food and shelter were just a bonus.

 **~/ *** \~**

Between attending his classes and exploring the Forbidden Forest in search for more interesting and strong beasts to fight, Harry lost track of time, and so, before he knew it, it was Halloween already. The castle was now decorated with hundreds of jack-o'-lanterns and garlands of life-like bats with more of them swooping around in the larger halls like black clouds. Several animated skeletons acting badly-written miniatures appeared around the castle, while a few ghosts entertained the students with stories about their deaths and unlives.

Unlike his yearmates, Harry didn't care about the festivities one bit, but he was definitely looking forward to the feast. There was no way in Hell he'd willingly skip a meal as plentiful and delicious as this. And so, on the evening of October 31st the young Eclipse Driver joined the rest of Hogwarts' students in the Great Hall.

The feast just got into full swing when Professor Quirrell unexpectedly came sprinting into the Great Hall, his turban askew and terror on his face. Everyone, Harry included, turned to look at the terrified DADA professor, who reached the professors' table and slumped against it.

"Troll!.." The man gasped between uneven breaths. "There is a t-troll in the dungeons!.. Thought you ought to k-know..." And with that he then sank to the floor in a dead faint. Almost instantly the Great Hall descended into chaos, and it took Professor Dumbledore several charms that produced loud bangs to restore some semblance of an order.

"Prefects!" The headmaster rumbled. "Lead your Houses back to the dormitories immediately!" The Hufflepuffs were quite surprised and more than a little dismayed by this order, many of them wondering whether Dumbledore even remembered that their dormitories were in the dungeons, exactly where the troll was supposed to be. The prefects even started arguing among themselves, trying to decide, whether they should follow this order or not. Harry, meanwhile, has already made up his mind: he wanted to fight this troll.

And just as the green-eyed youth was trying to think up a way to slip out of the Great Hall unnoticed, a crowd of younger Gryffindors passed by. Wasting no time, he quietly joined the Lions and used them as a cover for his escape from the watchful eyes of the professors. Soon enough, the Gryffindors reached the main staircase and began climbing up the stairs. That was the moment he stealthily broke away from them and set out for the castle's dungeons instead.

Alas, Hogwarts was a immense castle with equally-boundless dungeons, which made finding a single troll in there quite a difficult task. After a while, though, Harry got lucky and came upon the beast's trail: while the corridors were a bit too bare for the troll to leave noticeable destruction in its wake, the air there was still poisoned by the creature's foul body odor.

Following the smell, the young Eclipse Driver soon reached one of the few stairs connecting the dungeons with the aboveground portion of the castle. So, the troll decided to explore a little? Well, he didn't have any problem with that, beyond fearing that the professors might be able to find his smelly prey and take it down before he had a chance to fight it. Thus, further reinforcing his muscles, Harry sprinted up the stairs, hoping that the troll hasn't been dealt with yet.

Another half a minute later he finally caught up with the beast. And, just like it was described in the books, the troll was a hulking twelve feet tall humanoid monstrosity with dull granite-gray skin, lumpy boulder-like body and small, completely-bald head that looked both ugly and stupid. In its long yet heavily-muscled arms, the troll held a huge wooden club - actually just a randomly-picked tree trunk rather than a purposely-made weapon - that dragged along the floor with a loud scraping noise.

Summoning his Combat Protective Clothing, Harry drew his trusty knife and charged at the troll. And being too fast for the beast to react to, he had no trouble landing a hit on it. The said hit, however, resulted only in a superficial wound as the troll's thick hide proved itself to be quite knife-resistant... Jumping away to avoid being smashed by the troll's club, Harry let a grin split his face. This was going to be a great fight!

Not giving his prey any time to recover, the young Eclipse Driver attacked again, this time slashing its wrist. He managed to do some real now, but, alas, it wasn't enough even to inconvenienced the troll much. What a tough foe! Alas, Harry had to remind himself, he didn't have all day to play with the beast; he needed to off it and be gone before the Professors showed up... Looks like it was the time to start fighting seriously.

Dodging a powerful but sluggish club swipe, Harry flooded his muscles with mana to empower himself even further. Then, he launched himself straight at the troll, aiming to cut its throat. Unfortunately, this attack failed abruptly when, at the last possible moment, the troll head-butted him, sending him crashing onto the ground and making him drop his knife.

While his Combat Protective Clothing did shield him from the brunt of the impact, Harry still ended up with a bad concussion and a mother of all headaches. It was so bad that he didn't notice the troll's club descending towards him until he barely had enough time to roll aside and save himself from becoming a bloodstain on the floor.

Forcing himself back onto his feet, the young Driver quickly backpedalled away from the raging beast: Eclipse Factor needed some time to fix the damage he has taken, and he himself needed to come up with a new way to combat the troll. Which was easier said than done, as the troll refused to give him any breathing room, continuously advancing towards him while swinging its crude weapon wildly in hopes of smashing him into a bloody pulp.

In its mad quest to reach him, however, the troll moved away from where Harry's knife lied about on the floor, thus giving the green-eyed youth an opportunity to recover it. Picking a moment, he dashed past the beast and picked up his weapon. Now, it was the time for the round two. And knowing that attacking the troll from the front was not the brightest of ideas, Harry decided to try his luck with assailing it from behind.

Dashing past the beast again, he did a sharp slew and jumped on its back, intending to quickly cut its throat. The troll, though, refused to stand still and let Harry do his trick. Instead, it immediately started trying to shake him off. After a few seconds, it succeeded when it slammed itself back-first into the wall, nearly squashing the young Eclipse Driver to death and making him lose his knife again. And while his Combat Protective Clothing had once again saved Harry's life, being smashed into the wall still left him with another concussion and lots of bruising.

It took the green-eyed youth quite a few moments to recover from this, and by the time he did, the troll's club was already fast approaching his head. And having no way of dodging this, Harry was forced to 'sacrifice' his arms to preserve his very life. In a flash of pain, the club smashed the bones in his forearms into tiny pieces while also sending him flying across the corridor...

* * *

Completely unaware of what was going on outside of her cubicle, Hermione Granger was crying her eyes out. Yes, it's been a few hours since her ...altercation with Ronald Weasley, but his words had cut her heart so deeply that the she just couldn't stop.

Then, suddenly, there was a loud crash. Forgetting about her misery for a moment in favor of sating her curiosity, the bushy-haired witch opened her cubicle's door and peered outside. And saw a boy. Acting instinctively, she immediately drew her wand and sent the nastiest jinx she knew off towards this trespasser. A second later, just as her spell fizzled out of existence, Hermione realized that she has made two big mistakes.

First, the boy clearly didn't enter the girls' bathroom out of his own volition. If anything, it looked like someone or something had thrown him in there _through_ the door. And, second, the boy she has just tried to jinx was _Harry Potter_. The very one that almost killed a fellow student for trying to curse him as a prank. Worse still, her little mess up right now didn't go unnoticed by this short-tempered overly-violent Hufflepuff.

Now she could only pray that whatever had thrown Potter into this room occupied his attention for long enough for the Professors to show up. Friendless bossy know-it-all or not, Hermione had no desire to die just yet…

* * *

Harry had just begun recovering from crashing through a thick wooden door when he felt the Eclipse's Anti-Magic Field destroy a spell of some sort. Turning his head in that direction, he saw a frightened girl in Gryffindor robes, who was trying her best to go down the drain. Sending the best glare he could muster right now her way - mostly to keep her out of his hair; seeing how he was in the girls' bathroom right now, her violent reaction was ...forgivable - Harry returned his attention to the more pressing problem: the troll.

The beast was lumbering towards him, ready to finish him off. And seeing how the Eclipse Factor's base rate of healing wasn't enough to fix his arms in time, Harry knew he had to use the Reacted mode if he wanted to walk away form this battle alive.

" _Zero, react with me._ " He commanded within his thoughts.

「 _Understood, Master._ 」 The silver-haired Strosek replied telepathically, and a moment later the green-eyed youth felt a surge of power spread through his battered body, greatly increasing his regeneration rate and boosting his Anti-Magic Field to unprecedented levels. All this power, however, also woke up the dark entity that existed deep within Harry's mind ever since he became an Eclipse Driver. And it craved to take control over him and destroy everything in sight.

Having no desire to surrender his body to that _thing_ , Harry fought against it with everything he got. And, with Zero's help, he was able to overpower it and banish it out of his mind after several long seconds of struggle… This unexpected and unwelcome distraction dealt with, he turned his attention back to the troll, which now was almost within a spitting distance from him. There was no more time for him to waste.

Paying no heed to the protests of his body, the young Eclipse Driver pushed himself back to his feet and got ready to continue the fight. And the beast didn't keep him waiting: quickly covering the remaining distance between them, it raised its tree-trunk club for a strike and… Suddenly, Harry found himself reliving the memories that simply couldn't have been his own.

* * *

 _He stood amid the chaos of a battlefield, facing down a towering golem of rock and metal summoned by an enemy Zauber. Around him, partially obscured by the raging dust storm, the warriors of his tribe were fighting similar golems, some winning against the magical constructs while others struggled to stay alive… Whispering a quick prayer to the safety of his comrades under his breath, he pushed all of the unnecessary thoughts out of his head and concentrated on the golem in front of him._

 _Sidestepping the downwards swing of an oversized morningstar, he quickly rolled forward to avoid the follow-up swing. There, he delivered a powerful punch to the back of the golem's knee, shattering the stone and causing the whole thing to lose balance and collapse onto its back. Not giving it a chance to recover and repair itself, he immediately attacked the construct's head, aiming to destroy the control crystals within it. A thick metal helmet the golem wore was a formidable defense, but it still couldn't stand up to his might, and within just a few strikes he turned it into a twisted piece of scrap metal, while everything underneath it was reduced to breakstone. And now that the golem was no more, it was the time for him to deal with the Zauber who summoned it…_

* * *

The flashback ended as abruptly as it began, and Harry found himself back in the corridor, standing in front of an angry mountain troll. And, apparently, barely a fraction of a second has passed while he was reliving that strange 'memory'. His mind took another moment or two to completely catch up with the reality, but he still had more than enough time to easily dodge the troll's attempt to crush him with its club.

Hoping to replicate the success of the unknown man from the 'memories', Harry quickly moved past the troll, before kicking the back of its knee as hard as he could. The hit wasn't powerful enough to actually hurt the beast, but the sudden loss of support did make it lose its balance, causing it to fall onto the floor with a loud thud.

Liberating the troll's club with an application of brute force, the green-eyed Eclipse Driver picked it up and smashed it against the troll's head with all of his might. That, turns out, wasn't enough to even knock the beast unconscious, much less kill it. Quickly recovering from his shock, Harry then proceeded to strike the troll again. And again. And again… After maybe a dozen hits, he finally managed to break the troll's thick skull and kill the poor creature.

Letting go of the club, Harry took a couple of steps back, before sinking onto the floor. The fight was over and his adrenaline was now dropping rapidly, leaving him all spent and tired. Alas, it was not the time for him to rest just yet as he heard voices fast approaching his location. Either his battle attracted the Professors' attention, or the adults finally realized that the troll had left the dungeons awhile ago. In any case, Harry needed to leave and fast.

Forcing himself back to his feet, he quickly picked up his knife and then dashed away, hoping that he won't run into anyone on his roundabout way back to the Hufflepuff dormitories. And just a few moments after he left, Professors McGonagall, Flitwick and Snape entered the corridor from the opposite side.

"Merlin, what has happened here?" The Transfiguration Mistress exclaimed as she saw the dead troll and the signs of a fight surrounding it.

"Someone has killed the troll for us, and it doesn't look like it was done with Magic." The half-goblin Professor observed as he studied the beast's corpse with some obscure diagnostic spell. "The cause of death - as you all can see - is head trauma, inflicted with a large blunt object, the troll's own club. I can also see a few superficial wounds, likely made with a large knife, on the areas that would be reasonably close to the ground."

"The troll was killed by Potter, I just know it." Professor Snape muttered under his breath, though his colleagues still heard him clearly. Noticing their reactions, he elaborated: "I can't think of any other dunderhead foolish enough to seek out a mountain troll on their own and daring enough to face it without a wand. I have no idea how he managed to kill the beast, though. That is a feat well beyond a single wizard."

Hermione, who still hiding in the girls' bathroom, overheard the professors' conversation. A troll had found its way inside Hogwarts?! It was hard to believe that something like that could've happened in the safest place in the Magical Britain. And it was even harder to believe that someone managed to take it down, especially without Magic. But it also explained everything that had happened over the past few minutes so neatly…

A part of Hermione wanted to approach the Professors and tell them that it was that brute Potter who did it, but her more rational side held her back. First, she would definitely be questioned about what she was doing there, and that was something the bushy-haired witch didn't want to talk about. And, more importantly, while he was a violent savage that followed rules only when it was convenient to him, Potter wasn't stupid. He would know it was her who ratted him out, and his retribution was something she would rather avoid.

And so Hermione continued hiding in the bathroom, waiting for the Professors to depart so that she could leave this place herself and return to the Gryffindor tower.

 **~/ *** \~**

" _Alright, Zero, do you know what has happened to me when we entered reacted state back then?_ " Harry asked telepathically as he pulled the drapes of his bed in the Hufflepuff dormitory shut. " _When the troll was about to attack us again, I saw… I guess, memories of a battle that most certainly aren't mine._ " After a moment, he decided to elaborate: " _I saw it as if I was the one fighting there, but I was older, and… What I was fighting alongside other people against a group of mages and the golems they summoned._ "

「 _This unit has no definite answer to your question, Master._ 」 There was a short pause, before the silver-haired Strosek added. 「 _It is not impossible that you might carry some form of a genetic memory._ 」 Now this was interesting.

" _Genetic memory? As in, memories of my ancestors? Is something like this even possible?_ " Harry asked. He had heard about memory-manipulation charms being available to wizards, but… changing memories of an individual was one thing; preserving memories within one's DNA was something completely different.

「 _Indeed, Master._ 」 Zero confirmed. 「 _And it is certainly possible. According to this unit's database, at least two distinguished bloodlines of Ancient Belka had different forms of genetic memory as their defining trait._ 」 There a brief pause, before Zero added: 「 _In addition to this, there exists an unconfirmed theory that a clone of a person might be able to access the memories of their original from before the genetic material was taken._ 」 [1] The green-eyed Eclipse Driver let out a sigh.

" _I don't think I've been cloned from some warrior of ages past._ " He said. " _And what are the chances of me being related to royals of Ancient Belka?_ "

「 _While it is impossible for this unit to confirm or disprove this, such possibility does exist, Master._ 」 Zero told him. 「 _You will need to stop by medical center on an Administered World and have them run a blood test on you to get a conclusive answer to that question._ 」 Harry let out an unintelligible noise, but, nevertheless, agreed that it might be a good idea to ask for a bloodline test if and when he managed to reach the Administered Worlds. After all, he already planned to go there in hopes that the people there might be able help him with the anger issues he had thanks to the Eclipse Factor.

* * *

 **[1]** In the later chapters of the Vivid manga there is a scene where Vivio briefly sees memories of Olivie Sägebrech, whom she had been cloned from.

* * *

That's all, folks!  
 **Read** and **Review**!


	11. Moving Forward

And here's the eleventh chapter for your enjoyment, folks!

 *** Review Response**:  
 **Jostanos** , that "entity" is a certain power Harry inherited - you can say that it is past lives' experiences, though that wouldn't be entirely correct - warped by Eclipse. Right now Harry needs Zero's help to make use of those experiences without being taken over by the "entity", but he will eventually learn to do it on his own.  
 **Hayane234** , **lordamnesia** , **Ranmaleopard** , thank you for your reviews, folks!  
 **ultima-owner** , if only one has some degree of control of when and how he can access those. Right now Harry doesn't have it.  
 **raigalcc** , it's not a named character, but you can probably guess the bloodline. I've left hints.  
 **Darkscythe Drake** , Zero is an OC and would be the predecessor of the Strosek girls we see FORCE. Zero's origins will be discussed a little in the future chapters, once Harry and Zero finally reach Mid-Childa, so I'd rather not reveal everything right now. It will depend a lot on how - I guess - forceful the killing curse is, but, in general, the answer would be no.  
 **Duel** (guest), I have some other Magic in mind to dislodge Voldie from Quirrell.

 *** AN**: This chapter was not beta-read.

* * *

 **Disclaimer** : " ** _Harry Potter_** " and " _ **Mahou Shoujou Lyrical Nanoha**_ " belong to their respective owners. No profit is being made. The same goes for any other media that might be used as the sources of ideas and inspiration.

"speaking"  
" _telepathy_ "  
「 _Devices speaking_ 」  
' _thinking_ '  
" **spells** "

Additional **Disclaimer** : The authors of this story **in no way approve** murder as a solution to interpersonal conflicts.

* * *

 **Power of Eclipse  
Chapter XI** **: Moving Forward**

「 _Master._ 」 Zero called telepathically as Harry woke up the morning after his encounter with the mountain troll. 「 _This unit has gone over your latest fight and feels the need to point out a serious mistake you've made there._ 」 The still-sleepy young Eclipse Driver grumbled something unintelligible in response, indicating that he was listening. 「 _It appears that you, Master, have grown to rely on direct physical assault too much and, thus, neglect other combat options available to you, if when those would be beneficial to you._ 」 This got Harry attention.

"How so?" He asked, now feeling much more awake.

「 _Your fight against the troll yesternight would have been much easier and safer has you thought about using Eclipse Magic to supplement your physical attacks._ 」 The silver-haired Strosek told him. There was a small pause, before she added: 「 _This unit has to admit that your previous successes has led it to becoming complacent as well._ 」

"What do you mean? You haven't taught me any offensive spells." Harry pointed out. Indeed, Zero's knowledge of Eclipse spells was limited to only a handful of utility ones when they first met, and her work to develop new, offensive or defensive ones, was still ongoing.

「 _Perhaps._ 」 His partner agreed. 「 _But that doesn't mean you lack Magical options to make your fights easier._ 」 Seeing a questioning look her lord was giving her, Zero elaborated: 「 _This unit has taught you a binding spell, which could've been used to immobilize the troll, or at least greatly restrict its movements. Meanwhile, utility spells like the one that summons a ball of light can be used as a distraction._ 」Pausing for a moment to take a breath, she continued: 「 _And since it is rather unlikely that the troll from yesterday will be the most dangerous opponent you'll ever face, it is imperative that you learn to fight using every ability in your arsenal effectively, master._ 」

As much as Harry didn't want to admit it, what Zero was saying was very reasonable. Of course, fighting an opponent that can't fight back effectively would make sating his Eclipse-induced battle-lust noticeably harder, but if it meant not getting hurt as much… The Eclipse Factor might heal his injuries, even the most serious ones, in a matter of minutes if not seconds, but those injuries still hurt - and being in pain wasn't something that he enjoyed.

「 _...Therefore,_ 」 Zero continued meanwhile. 「 _You need to learn to supplement you physical attacks with Magic as soon as possible, and, once your arsenal of spells is sufficient, learn to use Magic as primary means of attack as well._ 」

"Alright." Harry grunted in agreement.

 **~/ *** \~**

" _We're here._ " Harry told Zero telepathically as he entered a large, roughly-circular clearing maybe a quarter of a mile into the Forbidden Forest. It was a nice spot where he wouldn't be disturbed by anyone that he had scouted during his many excursions into the forest. In other words, this clearing a perfect place for experimenting with the Eclipse spells.

「 _Understood._ 」 The Strosek girl replied, before manifesting herself into the real world, the book-shaped storage unit known as the Bible of the Silver Cross resting in her hands. A moment later, several holographic screens filled with various equations and charts appeared floating in the mid-air around her.「 _This unit is ready to show the results of its spell-crafting work, Master._ 」 Harry, being quite interested in what Zero managed to come up with, nodded, giving her a go ahead.

Making a couple of steps away from him, the silver-haired Strosek outstretched her hand and called upon her Magic, making a small and almost-transparent Eclipse circle appear in front of her open palm. A small ball of concentrated mana then formed next to this Magical circle, before being flung at a thick, age-old tree on the edge of the clearing. The said tree, however, remained completely undamaged as the magical bullet quickly veered off the intended course and struck the ground several feet away.

「 _It appears that this unit didn't account for everything when developing this spell._ 」 Zero observed.

"That was still pretty cool." Harry reassured her. And he wasn't lying to make his partner feel better either: this piece of Magic was first truly-offensive Eclipse spell that he had seen, which made it cool regardless of its current faults. "How about you show me what else you've managed to create?" The Strosek girl didn't say anything and only silently drew upon her Magic again, causing a larger Eclipse circle to appear under her feet. Then, a couple of moments later, a second and even larger one manifested itself in front of her.

「 _This spell was designed as a shield, meant to weaken or destroy spells that are too powerful to be stopped by the Eclipse Factor's passive AMF aura._ 」 Zero commented. 「 _Taking into account the problems with a shooting spell demonstrated previously, this unit is not sure that this shielding spell can work as intended without adjustments._ 」

"I'm sure you'll make it work, though." The green-eyed Eclipse Driver said as he reminded himself that he needed to work on improving his defenses: as his silver-haired partner had pointed out in her analysis of his fight against the troll, he can't keep relying on just his anti-Magic aura, his Combat Protective Clothing and the regenerative powers granted by the Eclipse Factor to keep him in one piece throughout a fight. Alas, there were opponent against whom his passive defenses wouldn't be enough, and, if Zero's stories about the Magic users from the Administered worlds were true, such powerful individuals were common enough that he'd run into one sooner or later.

「 _This unit thanks you for your faith, Master._ 」 The Strosek girl said. There was a small pause, before Harry spoke:

"There actually might be a way for is to test this shield of yours." He said, causing his partner to look at him: apparently, she thought that such testing couldn't be done until she 'fixed' the shooting spell.

「 _What do you propose, Master?_ 」 Zero asked.

"Wizarding spells." The green-eyed youth said in response. "If you can suppress your anti-Magic aura or project your shield far enough that it is a non-issue, then I can throw a few spells at it; if your shield is working, it should stop these spells." Zero thought about it for a few moments, before nodding.

「 _That could work._ 」 She said. Nodding back, Harry concentrated on suppressing his own aura of AMF, an (unfortunate) necessity for him to use any Magic that wasn't Eclipse. In the meantime, Zero re-cast her shield, doing her best to project it as far from herself as possible. 「 _This unit is ready._ 」 She announced.

"Alright. Let's do this." Harry said as he leveled his wand at the Eclipse shield hovering in the mid-air between him and his faithful Strosek. "There goes nothing. **Flipendo**!" A bluish beam of light shot from the tip of his wand, impacting the shield a moment later, making it light up slightly. This spell, the knockback jinx, despite being the most offensive spell Harry had been taught at Hogwarts, didn't possess even a fraction of power necessary to break past Zero's shield.

「 _It appears that the shield is working._ 」 The silver-haired Strosek observed. 「 _But its performance at this time is rather suboptimal. This unit would like to perform some modifications to it before teaching it to you, Master._ 」 Harry nodded.

"Of course." After a brief pause, he continued: "Were there any other spells that you wanted to show me, Zero?" He received a nod in response.

「 _Yes._ 」 Zero said. 「 _There is one more spell this unit has developed, a defensive shooting spell meant to destroy incoming Magical bullets. In the light of failure to make the offensive shooting spell work, however, it doesn't appear to be possible to test this one at all._ 」 She explained.

"But can't we do it the same way we did with your shield? With me throwing wizarding spells at you, I mean." Harry asked.

「 _Unfortunately, no._ 」 His partner replied. 「 _Magic used by the locals does not appear to be classifiable as Magical bullets, which this spell was designed to work against._ 」Seeing her Lord's unspoken question about the usefulness of her creation if it couldn't be used against various hexes, jinxes and curses used by 'wizards', Zero quickly added: 「 _Offensive spells native to this world appear to be beams almost exclusively. This isn't the case with Mid-Childan and Belkan Magic systems, where a significant fraction of offensive spells are 'projectiles', the so-called Magical bullets._ 」 Harry hummed as he processed this piece of information.

"Well." He said finally. "We'll test this spell of yours later, I guess." The silver-haired Reactor Plug simply nodded in response. This was followed by a few long moments of silence, before the young Eclipse Driver spoke again: "Is there anything else you're working on?" He asked, curious about the other spells Zero has come up with but, perhaps, wasn't ready to present to him just yet.

「 _Yes._ 」 The Strosek girl said with a nod as she tightened her grip on the book-like Magical Terminal slightly. 「 _This unit is also working on the ways to use innate properties of the Bible of the Silver Cross in offensive or defensive manner. Not much progress has been made yet._ 」

"I see..." Was all that Harry could say in response. After a rather lengthy silence, he spoke again: "Let's return to the spells later, when you've made further progress with them." Zero nodded. "And since we're already here, in the forest, let's go hunt something before heading back to the castle." He, after all, still needed to fight things to keep the battle-lust of the Eclipse Factor in check…

 **~/ *** \~**

It took Zero another couple of days to come up with ways to make her shooting and shielding spells function more or less the way she wanted them to. And the latter one actually worked so well that Harry was actually looking forward to learning it himself. He wasn't as enthusiastic about the shooting spell though, even if his partner did manage to convince him that having a ranged attack in his arsenal and knowing how to use them, and when, was a very good thing.

Anyhow, teaching her lord this shooting spell finally allowed Zero to try out her third creation, her "counter-spell" that she had no way of testing previously. And it was quite a neat piece of Magic, even if Harry didn't believe that it was all that useful. This spell, when fired, produced a number of miniature and fast-flying Magical bullets that barely did any damage to physical targets but were extremely efficient when used against other spells, greatly weakening or even outright canceling them on hit.

With their arsenal of spells expanded somewhat, the silver-haired Strosek concentrated on the other important project that her lord had given her: developing a knockoff version of the Cartridge System to power their eventual trip to the Administered Worlds. As for why those were needed...

The one way to 'jump' from one planet to another was the **Dimensional Transfer** spell. Its usefulness, however, was rather limited by the amount of mana needed to perform such jumps, especially when the planets in question weren't that close to each other in the Dimensional Space. And, unfortunately for Harry, the nearest inhabited world that Zero knew of was far enough that even their combined mana pool wasn't enough to get there in a single jump.

That's where the Cartridge System came in. Being essentially mana accumulators, the cartridges promised to increase the range of the **Dimensional Transfer** enough to make the jump to that nearest inhabited world possible. Alas, Zero only knew how these cartridges _were supposed to_ function and had no knowledge on how to actually make them. She wasn't going to let that stop her, however.

Using the knowledge she did have, the silver-haired Stroset determined finding the right core material to be the first and, arguably, the most important step in reinventing the Cartridge System. This material, whatever it might be, had to be capable of both storing a lot of mana per unit of volume and discharging all that mana quickly. It also had to be something reasonably-safe to handle without protective gear. Finally, since those were much easier to work with, Zero would rather it was a solid.

Finding a material that met those requirements would have probably taken a while even if they worked on it together, but Harry was adamant that Zero continued staying hidden from the eyes of wizards even if it meant that he had to do everything himself. And, truth to be said, he wasn't looking forward to the tedious task of collecting samples of everything he could find at Hogwarts and around it, but his trip to Mid-Childa depended on this, so he was going to give it his best.

His determination yielded little result, however. The young Eclipse Driver had collected samples of numerous materials over the past two weeks, but none of those materials showed much promise: they either couldn't store enough mana to be useful, leaked stored mana profusely, or didn't allow one to recover stored mana at an acceptable rate. And this lack of success annoyed Harry a lot as it meant he had keep looking for more and more arcane materials, and do so without attracting undue attention.

Zero's attempts to get him out of relying on pure physical combat too much were going only marginally better. While the silver-haired Strosek was somewhat successful in getting the necessity of using shielding spells to ward off incoming attacks through her lord's thick skull, getting him to consistently supplement his physical attacks with Eclipse Magic turned out to be a much harder task. In spite of all her efforts, Harry kept ignoring useful combat spells and just rushed to get into melee with his target, regardless of how bad a choice in a given situation that might be.

 **~/ *** \~**

Perhaps, exploring an unfamiliar part of the Forbidden Forest at night wasn't the brightest of his ideas, Harry thought with a sigh. The age-old trees around him shrouded everything in dark shadows and neither his Magic nor the full moon shining from the cold December skies could drive this nigh-impenetrable darkness away.

Being barely able to see a thing, the green-eyed Eclipse Driver had half a mind to call it a day and try again some time later. Yet, he kept pressing on for now as he had a feeling that he was really close to finding the material for Zero to build the Cartridge System around.

After another half an hour of wandering through the forest, Harry was ready to throw in the towel and head back to the castle. It was then that he caught a flicker of light out of the corner of his eye. He wasn't the only one here... Curious, he headed towards this light and soon found himself face to face with a large and very unfriendly centaur. The half-man half-horse had most of his body covered with furs and armed with a wicked spear in his right hand and a spiked buckler on his left one. He also had a longbow slung across his back with a pair of quivers full of arrows strapped to the sides of his body. Finally, he was also carried a Magical lantern - the source of light Harry saw earlier.

"What are you doing here, human?" The centaur asked while leveling his spear at the Eclipse Driver. "Return to your castle and never trespass on our territory. If I ever see you near my herd again, I'll make you regret your impudence." He threatened.

"You can try." Harry growled back as his hand found the grip of his trusted knife. The centaur took this as an invitation to a fight and, standing on end for a brief moment, charged straight at him, a desire to see human blood all over his spear burning like unholy fire in his eyes. This display of ferocity, however, failed to intimidate the young Potter, who simply waited for the right moment before rolling to the side, thus completely avoiding his opponent's attack.

Quickly regaining his footing, Harry launched a counterattack, aiming for the centaur' poorly-protected crupper. The beastman saw that and used his long spear to block the young Driver's knife. For a moment the two combatants tried to overpower each other. And the raven-haired youth was winning this struggle. At last until the centaur spun around and launched him away with a mighty kick.

"Tch." Harry spat to the side angrily as he got back to his feet. It looked like he needed something more than just his mana-augmented physical skills to score an easy victory against this foe. Perhaps, it was the time to put his lessons on the Magic-assisted combat to practice… Drawing upon his mana, he pushed it into the ground while quickly performing the calculations necessary to construct the spell matrix. " **Chain bind!** "

Having never encountered Magic like this before, the centaur stopped dead in his track the moment the Eclipse circle appeared under the young Driver's feet and just stood there as the spell took its shape. It wasn't until the Magical chains burst from under the snow that he shook off his stupor and resumed his charge. He barely managed to make a couple of step, though, before the chains wrapped tightly around his body, completely immobilizing him.

Breathing out a small sigh of relief, Harry adjusted his grip on his knife and started walking towards the bound beastman, intent on finishing the fight in a very final manner. He barely managed a couple of steps when his presentiment cried for him to dodge, and as he did just that he saw an arrow fly right next to the spot his head occupied a moment ago. Whirling around to face the shooter, he saw a group of six centaurs warriors stride towards him.

"Release our herd-guard, human." The centaur that shot the arrow demanded.

"Why should I?" Harry asked back, his voice full of anger. "He attacked me first, and lost. It is in my right to make him pay for his mistake." The centaur speaker narrowed his eyes at his defeated brethren.

"Bane!" He called. "Is this human telling the truth and you raised your hand against him first?" The now-named 'Bane' glared back. "I'm waiting." The other centaur pushed after not getting an answer for good ten seconds.

"He refused my demand to leave." Bane tried to defend himself.

"You were threatening me with bodily harm." The young Potter growled him. "Did you really expect me to just meekly back off?" The still-unnamed centaur let out a tired sigh.

"Bane!" He said then. "How many times have you been told not to antagonize humans? It's about time you learned that there might be consequences to your actions." He then turned to Harry. "We apologize for the rudeness and hotheadedness of our herd-guard, young wizard. Please release him to our care and be on your way. We promise that he will learn his lesson." The green-eyed Eclipse Driver gave him a glare in response: he still wanted to make the beastman pay for his mistake of attacking him himself. This made a couple of the more hot-blooded centaurs to reach for their weapons and get ready to fight for Bane's release. And while Harry was confident that he could take them on, he, for once, didn't feel like this battle would be worth his effort.

"Fine." He said finally, releasing his binding spell. "You can have him. But don't expect such generosity from me should something like this happen again." Bane gave him a death glare as he got back to his feet. Thankfully, he was sensible enough not to start another fight and merely strutted past the strange Magic-user as if he was the victor of their little skirmish... And once he re-joined the other centaurs, they turned around and walked away, quickly disappearing into the depth of the forest.

Unable to see even the lights of their lanterns anymore, Harry let out a sigh. Things weren't really going his way tonight and it didn't look like that would change any time soon. Perhaps, it was the time to call it a day. He could come back and continue exploring the forest later. Nodding to himself, the green-eyed youth turned his steps back towards the castle…

* * *

After maybe half an hour of navigating through the Forbidden Forest, he unexpectedly came across a picked carcass of a huge boar, its massive tusks in his plain sight. The young Potter was about to dismiss the dead creature and be back on his way, when a thought occurred to him.

" _Zero, do you think bones might be a good material for storing mana?_ " He asked telepathically.

「 _It is possible._ 」 His loyal Strosek replied.

" _Alright then._ " Harry said, before walking up to the boar and pulling off one of its tusks. Good. Now, he just needed to figure out a way to get something like this into the Hufflepuff dormitory without drawing unnecessary attention to himself...

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That's all, folks!  
 **Read** and **Review**!


	12. Winter Holidays

And here's the twelfth chapter, folks!

 *** Review Response**:  
 **lordamnesia** , well, canon Bane is an ass, so it's only natural he attracts stuff like this in fanfiction. Seriously, I don't think he will be teased much - at least, within his earshot - as he's one of the stronger centaurs and not many want to be on his side.  
 **ultima-owner** , well, animal bones got to be some of the oldest magical implements used by humans, so... And it's not like Harry and Zero currently have access to other, better materials. That said, the final version of the Cartridge System made by Zero will be using a slightly different substance for its core, and the real Cartridge System produced by TSAB will use entirely synthetic materials.  
 **Jostanos** , **Ranmaleopard** , **Pushi19** , **themadmartian** , thank you for your reviews, folks!  
 **The Ultimate Balance Chaos** , between Eclipse Factor's effects on one's mind and Harry having to survive entirely on his own on the streets for a few months, I don't think it's actually very surprising that he is so nonchalant about using parts of the dead animal to make his own life slightly better.  
 **nkh1** , can she now?

 *** AN**: I'm quite aware that this chapter is lacking both in size and in content, but this is the best I managed to come up with under the writer's block currently plaguing me. At least, I have some substantial ideas for the next couple of chapter, so, hopefully, they will be better than this (short) mess.

* * *

 **Disclaimer** : " ** _Harry Potter_** " and " _ **Mahou Shoujou Lyrical Nanoha**_ " belong to their respective owners. No profit is being made. The same goes for any other media that might be used as the sources of ideas and inspiration.

"speaking"  
" _telepathy_ "  
「 _Devices speaking_ 」  
' _thinking_ '  
" **spells** "

Additional **Disclaimer** : The authors of this story **in no way approve** murder as a solution to interpersonal conflicts.

* * *

 **Power of Eclipse  
** **Chapter XII: Winter Holidays**

As it turned out, the boar's tusk could indeed be used for the core of a makeshift Cartridge System. It was far from the best possible material for that, though: its energy density for mana wasn't all that great, and it also ' _leaked_ ', albeit slowly. A cartridge made from it will have to be _massive_ , both in size and weight, to store any meaningful amount of mana. Zero estimated that they'll need no less than sixty pounds of Iron Boar tusks to store the mana needed to power a **Dimensional Transfer** jump to the nearest known inhabited world. A better alternative would be much preferred, and the silver-haired Strosek supposed that body parts of different, more Magical, beasts might work better.

Harry agreed that it was a reasonable idea but, unfortunately, further exploration of the Forbidden Forest would have to wait until after the school resumed for the spring semester. The end-of-semester exams he was facing right now were exhausting, left him with neither spirit nor strength for an endeavor like that, and with only a handful students remaining at Hogwarts for the holidays, it looked like will be much more difficult for him to sneak past the staff on patrols, especially if he was bringing any ' _trophies_ ' into the castle.

Hell, the young Eclipse Driver wasn't even sure he'll be able to go on 'normal' hunts to keep his Eclipse-induced bloodlush in check during the holidays. That certainly didn't make him happy, but he was pretty sure that with most people out of the castle and no classes to attend he'll make it through the holidays without any major incidents.

And while he was dealing with his exams, Zero began working on reinventing the Mana Discharger Mechanism, arguably the most important component of the Cartridge System - cartridges, after all, would be rather useless if mana stored in them couldn't be extracted on demand. And, hopefully, whatever design she'll come up with will be mostly or completely independent of the material used to store mana as the cartridge's core.

Her progress was pretty slow so far, but that was to be expected given how her knowledge about the Cartridge System was limited to just the principles it functioned on. Still, the silver-haired Strosek was quite confident that she will have a working prototype in a couple of months. And should she succeed in this endeavor, then her Lord's dream of visiting the Administered Worlds will become a reality as soon as this next summer.

 **~/ *** \~**

Harry would definitely be lying through his teeth if he said that he didn't enjoy the food at the Christmas feast. That said, these festivities weren't anything truly meaningful for him as he had never had a chance to properly celebrate Christmas before. He still wished Zero a Merry Christmas as he went to bed that night, and she wished him one too in return.

When Harry passed through the common room the next morning, he noticed a small package, supposedly addressed to him, lying under the Christmas tree. Now, that was quite unexpected. After all, he certainly wasn't popular with his housemates. Or students from the other houses. Or the staff… In other words, the green-eyed Driver had no idea, who this package was from. The only thing he could be sure of, it wasn't from Zero: his Strosek would've given any gifts to him directly.

Confident that his powers will protect him from any damage, should this 'gift' turn out to be a trap, Harry gave in to his curiosity and picked up the parcel. Removing the colorful wrapping paper, he saw that the mysterious gift was nothing more than a small package of assorted Magical sweets. But who could have sent him these?

Decided that solving this mystery can wait, the green-eyed youth stuffed the package into a pocket and continued on his way to the Great Hall. There was a breakfast waiting for him there!

* * *

Having nothing better to do that morning, Harry retreated to an out-of-the-way abandoned classroom he had stumbled upon earlier this month and set about some workout. It might not be the best way to keep his Eclipse-induced lust for battle in check, but it was still better than nothing. That, and exercising like this helped him stay in shape, so there were no cons to it.

Having not bothered with keeping the track of time, Harry kept working out well into the afternoon. The lunch was long over by then. At least he still had that package of sweets with him - he'd rather not go hungry till dinner if he could help it. And so, he took those snacks out of his pocket and began eating.

After a few minutes, though, it became quite clear that a handful of cookies, no matter how good those were, wasn't going to cut it and he needed a real meal to sate his hunger. Perhaps, he should drop by the kitchens - he knew where those were, though he didn't particularly like that place: he found the house elves working there to be rather annoying in their helpfulness. Still...

A not-so-long walk later, Harry found himself standing in front of a painting that depicted a large bowl of fruit. After a moment of hesitations, he tickled the pear, making it giggle and turn into a door handle. Taking a deep breath to steel his nerves for what he knew was coming, he opened the door and stepped into the kitchens. Almost immediately, a house elf appeared in front of him.

"Young Master be coming to the kitchens." The creature spoke. "Did young Master like his Christmas cookies? We have more if young Master wants." So this is where his mysterious gift come from…

"You were the ones who put that package under the Christmas tree, weren't you?" Harry asked, seeking a confirmation to his guess. The elf nodded. "Why?"

"This be a Hogwarts tradition for many decades. We are to give some sweets to all children who get no gifts by the end of the night." Well, the green-eyed Driver thought, that was a pretty neat idea. He remembered Dudley mock him for not getting - it wasn't a nice feeling, and Harry was sure that being revealed as someone who didn't get any presents in front of all his classmates would only be worse.

"Thanks, I guess." He said.

"Young Master liked his gift." The elf beamed. "Mipsi be so happy! Would young Master like more Christmas cookies?"

"Yeah, If you have some left…" Harry said. Seeing the elves scramble to fetch him those, he quickly added: "But I actually came here because I missed lunch and would like something to eat. Do you have anything left?"

"Most certainly." Mipsi replied. "There is much food left from lunch. Young Master is free to eat as much as he wants." The elf said, gesturing towards a large pile food sitting on table in the corner of the kitchen. Harry nodded a thank you and moved to that table, eager to get to his meal. "Does young Master require anything else?" The elf asked next, oblivious to how the said 'young Master' believed their conversation to be over. It took Harry quite a bit of self-control to squash his annoyance and not lash out at the creature that was only trying to help him.

"No." He said in a low growl, making it clear that he didn't want to be disturbed in the immediate future. The elf gave him a quick bow, before disappearing towards the stoves on the other side of the cavernous room, thus letting the green-eyed Driver have his meal in peace.

 **~/ *** \~**

The next few days passed without anything really notable happening. Zero was working on developing the Mana Discharger Mechanism for the Cartridge System. Her progress so far was pretty slow, but the silver-haired Strosek was positive that she will be able to produce a working prototype by spring.

Harry wished he could help her some but, alas, he had absolutely no idea what she was doing. Thus, he spent his time alternating between just lazing around in the dormitory and doing working out in 'his' unused classroom-turned gymnasium…

A few days before the start of the spring semester, it got to the point where the young Driver felt like he would got to pieces the moment something annoyed him… And since he'd rather not be in such a state when the other students return from the holidays, a prompt visit to the Forbidden Forest was in order.

Slipping out of the castle wasn't especially difficult, though he had to dodge Mrs. Norris in the corridors. And then, once outside, he had to hide in the shadows for a short while as he waited for his head of the house to finish her conversation with Hagrid - something about plants from the forest for one of her classes… Once the adults finished talked and went on their ways, the green-eyed youth quickly crossed the grassland and disappeared into the Forbidden Forest.

The hunt itself also went pretty well: it took Harry just half an hour to find a strong, mean beastie to fight in the dark depth of the forest. Too bad, the creature he fought wasn't especially Magical and harvesting it for body parts wouldn't help Zero in her quest to reinvent the Cartridge System much if at all.

His battle-lust satisfied, the young Eclipse Driver headed back to the castle. And this time, thanks to the onset of the night, there was no one outdoors to see him walk out of the Forbidden Forest. Once inside, though, he almost immediately ran into a professor on patrol. Not feeling like hiding in the shadows till the man was gone, Harry took the 'scenic route' to the Hufflepuff dormitories instead. Alas, it looked like a good hunt was the extent of his good luck for tonight: he ran into yet another patrol as he was crossing the fourth floor. Deciding that he didn't want to deal with this professor either, he silently slipped into an unlocked room to his left.

Contrary to his expectations, the unused classroom wasn't devoid of any source of light. In its far corner there was a pair of everlasting torches, illuminating a strange mirror. Well, it probably was a mirror of some sort, but all that Harry could see was a mat surface that showed no reflection. He did notice his mana being drained though. Apparently, there was some Magic within this mirror, and it was trying to attach itself to him. Curious, he walked up to the ornate artifact.

"Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi." He 'read' the inscription on the Mirror. This didn't sound like any proper language, but the green-eyed Eclipse Driver was nevertheless sure that it wasn't just a random nonsense. The mirror looked like too valuable an object to be defaced like that. He didn't get a change to think about it as the classroom's door opened.

"Mr. Potter." He heard the headmaster's voice say. "Aren't you supposed to be in the Hufflepuff dormitory right now? It's already past the curfew." Harry remained silent. "But worry not, my boy." The man continued in a jovial tone. "A little adventure never really hurt anyone. Still, this room isn't a place you should be in tonight, regardless of curfews."

"Why is that?" Harry asked.

"The Mirror of Erised is a very powerful and quite dangerous Magical artifact. It has a long history of causing wizards and witches waste away before itself, never knowing whether the images they saw are real or even possible. In reality, it shows one the deepest desires of his heart, and a few have gone mad from staring into the mirror for too long." The Hogwarts' Headmaster explained. Yes, Harry agreed silently, the artifact in front of him was a subtle and dangerous killer of minds - at least for those who didn't have the will (or Anti-Magic Field) to resist it… Meanwhile, Dumbledore continued: "The Mirror will be moved to new place tomorrow morning, and I will be very thankful if you don't go looking for it."

"I won't." The young Driver promised. As curious as he was about what he really wanted, he didn't want to risk exposing himself to the wicked Magics of the Mirror.

"Good." The Headmaster said. There was a rather long pause, before he suddenly asked: "Please forgive the old man, but I'm rather curious what someone ...special like you might see in this mirror."

"I don't see anything at all." Harry replied honestly. "My powers prevent whatever Magic that operate this mirror from working on me."

"I see..." The aged warlock said. "Anyhow." He continued after a moment or two of silence. "It's getting really late, Mr. Potter, and while there are no classes tomorrow, you still should retire for the night." Nodding silently, Harry followed the man's advice and left the classroom.

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That's all, folks!  
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